Inland mariculture of reef corals amenable for the ornamental trade

The worldwide market for ornamental saltwater invertebrates supplies the needs of millions of aquarium hobbyists, public exhibitions (i.e., zoos) universities and research institutions. With respect to reef building corals, it is estimated that more than half a million coral colonies/year from a total 93 genera, were exported globally during the period of 1985-1997. International value of retail sale of live coral trade alone is estimated as $78 million in 1997 (not including the illegally, widely smuggled material). The continuous, large-scale collection of marine organisms is responsible, in many places, for the destruction of coral reefs. The expected expansion of the trade further threatens these fragile habitats. While no true captive-bred corals are commercially available, our long-term goal is to develop ex situ inland farming of coral colonies that will circumvent the need for in situ collections and will provide domesticated specimens for the trade and for research. We simultaneously studied two model branching coral species, Stylophora pistillata (Pocilloporidae; in Israel) and Porites (Poritidae; in the US). The proposal included three specific aims: (a) To develop protocols for nubbins (small fragments, down to the size of a single polyp) usage in coral farming;(b) To address the significance of colony pattern formation to the coral trade; and (c) To develop the protocols of using nubbins in physiological and ecotoxicological assays (using oil dispersants, the expression of the stress protein HSP-70, household detergents, etc.). Ten scientific publications (published manuscripts, accepted for publications, submitted to scientific journals, in preparation), revealing results that were related to all three specific aims, originated from this BARD proposal. As a result of the work supported by the BARD, we have now, in hand, original and improved protocols for coral maintenance ex situ, proven expertise on manipulating coral colonies’ pattern formation and biological knowledge on island mariculture of reef corals (from Hawaii and from the Red Sea) amenable for the ornamental trade (for public and private aquaria use, for experimentation). At least one Israeli company (Red Sea Corals, Ltd., KibbutzSaar) is using our methodologies for further developing this new mariculture sector. We are now in the process of introducing the rationale and methodologies to Hawaiian private entities to expand dissemination of the research outcomes.