Sunday, May 07, 2023

Coral Gardeners: Restoring the Reef. Parts 1-3




Coral Gardeners


Restoring the Reef 

Parts 1-3

At 16 years of age, while surfing the crystal waters of his home island in French Polynesia, Titouan Bernicot had an eye-opening experience that led him to dedicate his life to protecting the coral reefs he loves. He founded Coral Gardeners, kick-starting coral restoration on the island alongside his childhood friends. Today these “ocean kids” are inspiring a global community of reef defenders.


Since 2017, the Coral Gardeners collective has restored and monitored more than 30,000 corals. Founder Titouan Bernicot has no formal training in marine biology but the reef is his life. The organization has recruited experts and enthusiastic people willing to help. As a result, the team refines its methods and plants more corals every year. All the while, it is telling the “story of the reef” and has already reached more than 200 million people worldwide.


The Coral Gardeners team keeps an eye on the future. As well as planting more and more corals every year, it is developing ReefOS, an artificial intelligence platform that includes automated sensors and cameras. This makes it possible to monitor coral nurseries and reefs, and track the restoration process. The organization’s target is to become “the biggest and most advanced coral restoration program on the planet”.