14% of corals have disappeared in 10 years due to global warming according to a study published this week. It is a real threat to marine biodiversity. In French Polynesia, a young man decided to replant corals and rebuild reefs.
Amid the blue hues of the Pacific, they made the reef their underwater nursery. The guardians of the island of Moorea are the gardeners of the ocean who plant coral cuttings. This is not Titouan Bernicot’s first coral plantation. This child from Polynesia has dedicated his life to a cause: defending the biodiversity of his threatened island. “The click was a surf session where during the time we were surfing the waves, all the corals below our feet were white“, he confides.
Polynesia is a paradise on the surface, but under the waves is a marine cemetery with dead bleached corals, which cannot withstand global warming. It is an ecological disaster that the association of Titouan fights. First, by taking the most resistant corals to plant them on artificial farms called “nursery”. Then after 18 months of growth, the corals are reintroduced to the middle of the reef.