Austin Bowden-Kerby was a coral killer at a very early age, buying pieces of coral from his local five-and-dime store, Woolworth’s. Both Bowden-Kerby’s interest and relationship with coral changed when his family moved to Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands. There, at age 11, Bowden-Kerby first snorkeled a pristine coral reef “too beautiful to comprehend” and was hooked forever.
Today, Bowden-Kerby is the founder of a new nonprofit organization with a focus on environmental education and community-based coral reef restoration: Corals for Conservation.
“Unfortunately, coral reefs are not the same as when I was a kid. Coral reefs almost everywhere are just a shadow of their former glory. But I would say that over half of the reefs that you snorkel on have already declined. And that’s a shame. That’s a big shame.”
Less than ten percent of reefs are in a pristine condition — in a state where they are not overfished, bleached, or lacking in biodiversity. Coral reefs are also incredibly sensitive to climate change, potentially making them the most vulnerable ecosystem on the entire planet.
To respond to this pressing socio-environmental issue, Bowden-Kerby has developed methods of growing and replanting corals sustainably for restoring coral reefs damaged naturally or by human factors. His projects encourage rural fishing communities, resorts and the dive industry to transform the traditional tourism system and become more actively involved in the conservation of the reef resources they so largely depend upon.
Corals for Conservation’s coral gardening program trains community members and resort staff to actively care for the corals on their reefs. Coral gardeners, much like their land-loving counterparts, control for pest infestations, like the crown-of-thorns starfish; remove damaging algae, fertilized by nitrogen waste and urine; and repair damage caused by anchors, storms and tourists.
In the Caribbean the focus is on the critically endangered Acropora corals (Staghorn and Elkhorn), which previously made up 60 percent of the Caribbean reef framework, but have since declined to less than one percent of their former abundance. Bowden-Kerby and his associates rescued pieces of Acropora coral and began growing it in nurseries, testing it for its thermal tolerance and resistance to bleaching and diseases. The team began replanting second generation corals — those most resistant to the “insidious” human factor — into no-fishing marine protected areas with good ecological balance.
The critical piece of the coral conservation puzzle is the establishment of marine protected areas (MPA). Removing fish from reefs slowly degrades the ecosystem over time, so Corals for Conservation has begun to establish no-fishing areas in locales such as Jamaica, Belize, Fiji and Indonesia. Conserving 25 to 30 percent of the over-fished coral reef in MPAs typically results in doubling of the catch within one year in the open fishing areas, and up to five times the yield within just three years.
“We have a way of transforming human interaction where we can use 25 to 30 percent less reefs and support a population twice what we have now on this planet, in coastal areas,” explained Bowden-Kerby. “If you give power to the fishermen, people will be the changemakers. They are desperate to be changemakers in their own lives. This process is starting, albeit on a low level, but I’ve seen people with tears in their eyes, so happy because it’s working in their communities.”
Bowden-Kerby believes that desperate times call for desperate measures and that the conservative Precautionary Principal of science must be flipped on its head. Although he believes that there are instances where we’re paralyzed by science’s restrictive, time-intensive paradigms, Bowden-Kerby is very much in favor of regulation and multi-disciplinary accord: “We need proper certification programs. We need coral gardeners to be properly certified, recognized by governments, and connected to a reporting system so that knowledge can be gathered and shared.”
The tourism industry has the available resources to revolutionize the multi-billion dollar aquarium trade to benefit rural fishing communities, instead of only collectors and extractors. Bowden-Kerby and Corals for Conservation operate to solve poverty through reef-derived industry and have already realized significant breakthroughs. More fish and healthier corals lead to more prosperous communities and enhanced tourism. By working hand-in-hand with people on a local level, Corals for Conservation empowers people to become environmental stewards more closely connected with the fragile ecosystems on land and in the water.
“We are in the greatest crisis that will ever be. If we can’t save coral reefs, we can’t save the planet. Humans are the biggest threat to these coral ecosystems, but we’re also the biggest solution.”