Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

With the threats faced by coral reefs in Jamaica because of climate change, hurricanes and other things, the University of the West Indies (UWI) has embarked on a coral reef replanting project to protect the island's coastline.

This was disclosed recently by Dr Judith Mendes, lecturer in coral biology at the UWI.

Coral reefs are animals and are the most important marine natural resource for Jamaica and most Caribbean islands, providing the bulk of fisheries, catches and marine biodiversity. They also protect the shore from erosion by storm waves.

Seaweed invasion

Mendes said the amount of living corals on Jamaica's reefs is so low they are unlikely to grow back by themselves.

"Not only are the corals dying, but their place is being taken over by seaweed and this prevents new corals from settling on the reefs," Mendes said during an interview on the Mona campus.

The project, which began January 2007, grows several hundreds of tiny fragments of corals in two nurseries in Discovery Bay.

The corals are being grown in frames made of PVC pipes.

The plan, Mendes said, is to replant the several different species of corals on the reefs in the Discovery Bay area when they are fully grown.

It is expected that replanting will begin some time next year.

The lecturer explained that if the replanting project is successful, it will be replicated in other areas in Jamaica.

Meanwhile, the UWI is responsible for coordinating a regional coral-reef monitoring project in the Eastern Caribbean and Tobago.

The monitoring project was started in three pilot countries (The Bahamas, Belize and Jamaica) with a view to including the lessons learnt into an expanded programme for the rest of the region.

Climate change and reefs

Marcia Creary, environmental data manager at Caribbean Coastal Data Centre at the Centre for Marine Sciences, told The Gleaner that the project - 'The Main-streaming Adaptation to Climate Change' - has as one of its objectives, the strengthening of the climate and coral-reef monitoring.

It involves monitoring the coral reefs on a regular basis. Sensors are also placed in the water adjacent to the coral reefs to monitor the temperature on a regular basis.

"As well, you try and see if you can establish a link between the health of the reef and the climate-change factor that affects reefs the most, and that is temperature," said Creary.

The environmental data manager said her unit was in the process of writing a draft report on the project. Preliminary data have shown that the coral cover in St Vincent and Tobago is very high.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com