Picture of the Week – 9/19 – 9/25

Pictured in this week’s AquaNerd POTW is a Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) frag being displayed at the Boyd’s Enterprises booth at MACNA. The purpose of this display was to show the different growing strategies that conservation groups have attempted when restoring this coral’s wild populations. This particular strategy is an alteration of a method that used monofilament fishing line to dangle a coral frag in the water, allowing it to grow outward in every direction. The difference in the method shown above from traditional methods is instead of using fishing line, a short wire is being used. When asked why the change from the fishing line, we were told that too many fish and turtles kept bumping into the corals, causing either damage to the frags or to the animal swimming. The wire is far more visible than the fishing line and the conservationists found it to be far more effective.