Nova Maldives introduces enhancements to its Coral Nursery

Eco-conscious, soft-luxury island resort, Nova Maldives, known for its commitment to sustainable initiatives, announced the launch of an enhanced coral restoration initiative around its house reef. This latest endeavour builds upon the island resort's existing coral plantation programme, allowing guests to safeguard the local marine ecosystem through direct, hands-on participation.

Taking an innovative approach to increase the survival rates of freshly-planted coral colonies and to mitigate the effects of rising ocean temperatures, the island resort is introducing a newly completed depth-adjustable coral nursery installation. Over the next few weeks, Nova’s resident marine biology team will lead multiple planting sessions, to plant hardy coral fragments collected from the surrounding waters onto the nursery structures. These coral "seeds" will grow and thrive in the protected nursery environment before eventually being transplanted to designated repopulation sites on Nova’s house reef, which will one day become the backbone of the local reef ecosystem.

“Our new construction is expected to decrease mortality among infant coral buds throughout the early stages of colony growth, giving them a better chance to flourish and develop into maturity.” said Toby Corren, Resident Marine Biologist at Nova Maldives. "We hope to take direct action to cultivate the next generation of corals and support the vibrant marine ecosystem that the Maldives is so well known for. "

The initiative comes as a thoughtful upgrade to the existing coral plantation programme, which invites guests to plant their own coral frame as a way to support local marine ecosystem around the island. Nova’s resident marine biologist carefully monitors their growth thereafter, and also provides bi-annual snapshots of them to guests so that they can track the growth of their corals long after they left the island.

As an island resort committed to taking concrete steps to support conservation on a wider scale, Nova has spearheaded various other related initiatives every year, with details on the resort's website.