Coral Vita restores threatened reefs by growing resilient corals
and transplanting them into degraded sites.
Coral Vita works to restore our world's dying and damaged reefs.
By growing diverse and resilient corals and transplanting them into threatened reefs, we help preserve the ocean's biodiversity while protecting the health and prosperity of communities, nations, and industries that depend on reefs for coastal protection, food, and income.
Coral reefs are one of most important ecosystems on the planet. They are a cornerstone of life in the ocean, supporting 25% of all marine species. These incredible ecosystems are also a source of food for hundreds of millions of people; they power coastal economies around the world through tourism, fishing, and recreation; and reefs shelter coastlines from storms and erosion.
Sadly, coral reef health is collapsing around the world. As reefs die, these ecological wonders and the critical benefits they provide for people disappear. The threats posed from this crisis – from wildlife loss, to homes underwater, to climate refugees – matters to everyone everywhere.
Coral reefs are economic powerhouses through coastal protection, fisheries, and tourism.
Coral reefs protect coasts against storm surges, waves, and erosion.
Coral reefs are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on earth.
In just the past few decades, we have lost half of the worlds coral reefs.
Scientists project that due to climate change and direct human impacts, over 90% of reefs will be dead by 2050.
Over 80% of Caribbean corals are already dead, with a long history of human impact taking its toll.
Global reef degradation threatens both ecosystem and economic health. If a region's reefs are not revived, coastal residents and properties are more exposed to rising seas and stronger storms, fisheries reliant upon reefs as nurseries face collapse, dive and snorkel tourists will spend their money elsewhere, and the prospect of discovering potentially life-saving
medicines is lost.
The widespread coral mortality our world’s currently experiencing is not natural and is almost entirely caused by human actions. While restoration is a critical strategy to sustain ocean and community health, the best thing to do to protect coral reefs is to stop killing them. At Coral Vita, we actively work with local partners and governments that are implementing progressive conservation policies. Our political and industrial leaders must rapidly implement meaningful solutions to solve the following problems that are the main causes of reef degradation.
During extreme heat events, coral reefs can turn white in a process called “bleaching.” This happens when coral expel the microalgae that gives them color. These symbiotic algae feed the coral and bleaching can result in the rapid death of huge areas of reefs. Together with ocean acidification, climate change threatens to kill the majority of coral reefs.
Fish are an essential part of a coral reef ecosystem. For the corals in particular, herbivorous fish clean corals by eating macroalgae off their surface. When humans reduce fish populations through overfishing, this algae can smother and kill corals. And as more reefs die and less fish exist to control algal growth, algae more quickly takes over space that corals needed to recover from degradation.
Coral reefs are susceptible to direct human impacts like poor development practices and pollution. Oftentimes, reefs close to population centers and agricultural lands are killed by pollution and runoff. They also can be damaged by sedimentation and improperly managed dredging from development projects.
Coral Vita uses cutting-edge methods developed at marine institutes around the world - growing corals up to 50x faster than in nature while boosting their resilience against climate change - to restore reefs in the most effective way possible.
Coral farming is the process whereby fragments of corals are collected from local reefs, raised in farms until mature, and then installed at the restoration site. After decades of scientific, small-scale, and community-based projects around the world, this has been shown to be a viable method for restoring degraded reefs. With the advent of innovative coral farming techniques, now is the time to launch large-scale restoration efforts to revive and protect our world’s valuable and threatened coral reef ecosystems.
Gator Halpern and Sam Teicher met and became friends at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where they both received Master of Environmental Management degrees. Together, they helped launch the Social and Environmental Entrepreneurship Club and were awarded awarded Yale University’s first-ever Green Innovation Fellowship. Their graduate studies and love for the ocean inspired them to launch a company to solve global coral reef degradation. Since founding Coral Vita, they’ve been recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs, Echoing Green and JMK Innovation Prize Fellows, and WeWork Creator Awards Global Finalists.
Follow our mission as it evolves, with news that comes straight from Coral Vita.
And join our online community for regular stories.
At Coral Vita, we are creating a global network of high-tech coral farms that can sustain our world’s coral reefs despite the threats they face. Our vision is to produce billions of corals from our farms each year in order to maintain these magical ecosystems for generations to come.
As we work to achieve this vision, we also acknowledge that the best thing our society can do for coral reefs is to stop killing them. We strongly urge responsible parties to limit greenhouse gas emissions, reduce pollution and overfishing, and take other meaningful steps to eliminate threats to environmental health – these necessary actions ultimately impacts humanity’s well-being and prosperity. Yet we also recognize that the pace of degradation - coupled with the lack of sufficient positive action - demands scalable adaptation solutions be implemented as mitigation measures continued to be pursued.
That's why we are scaling land-based coral farming methods. Doing so will enable stakeholders around the world to have a ready-to-install supply of corals for all restoration needs. We aim to provide a means to sustain vital resources in spite of the ecological danger our planet faces. Coral Vita improves the livelihoods of those who depend on coral and aspires to enable a new generation to protect these reefs that will sustain their communities and nations well into the future. As a mission-driven company, Coral Vita is committed to reinvesting the majority of our profits into sustaining coral reefs.
The majority of coral farming projects today use ocean-based nurseries . Ocean-based nurseries are appealing for small-scale restoration projects because they can be assembled at low cost and support fast-growing branching species like Staghorn and Elkhorn corals. Unfortunately, such nurseries don't offer an effective and scalable means for executing large-scale restoration projects, especially since they are almost entirely grant-funded. Coral Vita grows corals in land-based farms, which provide crucial advantages for the company and reef stakeholders.
Unlike ocean-based projects, land-based farms can use breakthrough techniques that allow for faster growth of more diverse array of corals. By using microfragmenting - a process pioneered by the Mote Marine Laboratory - we can accelerate coral growth up to 50x natural rates. Many coral species that serve as critical building blocks for reefs (such as Brain or Great Star corals) grow too slowly to be feasible for restoration projects using ocean-based nurseries. Now, Coral Vita can grow these corals in months rather than decades.
Land-based coral farming enables the usage of assisted evolution techniques to improve coral resiliency to changing oceanic conditions that threaten reef health. Corals that are native to each restoration project can be raised to be more tolerant to threats such as warming temperatures or acidification, as we can control their growing conditions. Coral Vita advisors are leading experts in coral resiliency and accelerated growth methods, putting the company at the forefront of efforts to help reefs survive for future generations.
Farming corals on land further reduces risks that ocean-based nurseries are exposed to, such as storms, boating accidents, or warming events. Also, ocean-based farming limits the type of corals to the site-specific location of the nursery. Growing corals on land allows us to produce a range of native corals which meet the needs of a particular site, as Coral Vita can tailor water conditions that replicate those of restoration site. Sooner rather than later, Coral Vita's land-based farming offers a viable solution to counter large-scale degradation.
Coral Vita invites you to join us in protecting the world's coral reefs. By adopting coral fragments to be grown and out-planted into degraded reefs, you can help in the effort to preserve these endangered ecosystems for future generations.
1 Magellan Close, Freeport, Grand Bahama
adoptions@coralvita.co
www.coralvita.co
