2024 Spawning School

We were stoked to have 23 rangers come along to Spawning School 2024, from 5 different ranger groups in the Cairns-Port Douglas region. We had a great week and a half learning about coral reproduction and reef restoration, with plenty of hands-on work taking care of our corals, collecting coral spawn, raising and then settling our larvae onto coral seeding devices and natural coral rubble.

Last day! Great to have rangers from Jabalbina, Yirrganydji, Mandingalbay Yidinji, Gunggandji-Mandingalbay Yidindji and Gunggandji ranger groups (loosely left to right).

Photo gallery

Coral collection at Pixie Reef
Corals at JCU
Learning about coral biology
Coral identification
Coral identification
Ranger photos of coral skeletons
Ranger photos of coral skeletons
Corals in aquaria masterclass
Checking salinity
Checking water temperatures
Recording water quality measurements
Waiting for corals to spawn
Pink eggs, spawning imminent!
Coral spawning!
Spawn bundles rise to the surface
Collecting spawn bundles
Collecting spawn bundles
Collecting spawn bundles
Three intact spawn bundles
Intact and broken up spawn bundles
Measuring egg size
Collecting larvae for daily health checks
Daily examinations of larval health and development
Embryos at prawn chip stage (1 day)
Larvae elongating (3-4 days)
Spinning and ready to settle (6 days)
Prepping our settlement choice experiment
~300 larvae for each container
Three different settlement options in each container for larvae to choose
Settled corals monitored with microscopes after 24 hours
Coral spat – larvae that have settled and metamorphosed into their next life stage as permanently attached corals
Searching for coral spat on settlement devices
Searching for coral spat on settlement devices
Recording data
Long afternoon on the scopes
This little coral larva settled on a worm tube and created a coral daisy 🙂

More content on Spawning School 2024 coming soon…