Bertarelli-Annual-Report-2024-LR - Flipbook - Page 44
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Conservation
Impacts
We aim to act on our science to
benefit the conservation of species
and habitats in the Indian Ocean, such
as those impacted by threats such
as illegal fishing, pollution or climate
change. This year, we took action to try
to save the world’s rarest coral species.
Coral Rescue Project
The greatest threat to coral reef survival globally comes
from warming seas. Against a rising baseline, extreme
heatwaves associated with periodic El Niño events
can wreak devastation – widespread coral bleaching
followed by mortality and reef degradation. In 2023
climate models were predicting a particularly severe
El Niño building, and this raised concerns about the
impacts on already threatened coral species the Chagos
brain coral (Ctenella chagius).
Chagos brain coral in transit to the Horniman museum © Jon Slayer
Chagos brain coral rescue project, Diego Garcia © Jon Slayer
Endemic to the Chagos Archipelago and already
massively depleted from its former population, Ctenella
had disappeared from the record completely for a few
years after the 2015/2016 bleaching event as was now
only known from fewer than 200 colonies. The prospect
of another bleaching event coming again in under ten
years and threatening a potential extinction event for
Ctenella led to a quick response to develop a coral
rescue project to bring a small founder population of this
rare coral to safety in ex-situ aquarium facilities.
The expedition team, led by Prof. Heather Koldewey,
worked with Ctenella science lead Dr. Bryan Wilson
from the University of Oxford and coral aquarists from
ZSL, the Horniman Museum and Gardens and the
Oceanographic Museum Monaco. They spent almost
a month finding and recording every colony they could
across Diego Garcia and Middle Brother atolls.
