Long-term survival of large relocated Porites colonies at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Joanna Buckee A * and Craig Blount BA Environmental and Conservation Sciences, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.
B Cardno (NSW/ACT) Pty Ltd., PO Box 19, St Leonards, NSW, Australia.
Pacific Conservation Biology 28(5) 455-456 https://doi.org/10.1071/PC21024
Submitted: 12 April 2021 Accepted: 9 August 2021 Published: 23 September 2021
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
In August 2009, eight large Porites corals were relocated prior to dredging works at Cocos (Keeling) Islands. In March 2020, relocated colonies were found to have survived and grown, demonstrating that large Porites colonies growing on unconsolidated substrates can be relocated successfully if moved swiftly to a similar habitat to their source.
Keywords: bommies, coral conservation, coral transplantation, dredge management, Porites lobata.
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