In a bid to spur action to save coral reefs, Corals For Conservation in partnership with Plantation Island Resort and Vanua Malolo has established Bula Reef - the world’s biggest underwater coral word display.
Corals For Conservation says ‘BULA’ is spelt out in heat-adapted corals and measures 16 meters by 45 meters.
They say this nursery was created as an emergency action to save as many heat-adapted corals as possible.
The foundation says they watched on in horror when most Caribbean corals died last year in an intense marine heat wave, and the heat was coming our direction, so we got busy in September and October and moved more than 1,300 heat-adapted corals from shallow hot pocket reefs to cooler waters nearby.
They say sadly, the thousands of corals they had to leave behind mostly died in the heat, which reached 35 degrees Celsius.
The foundation says on World Ocean Day, they celebrate what they have managed to save.
They say they have proven that moving corals from hot to cooler waters can prevent their death and can buy time in the face of rapid ocean warming due to climate change.
Meanwhile, Plantation Island Resort says, unlike other reef projects, the BULA Reef will not become a public snorkelling site given how vulnerable baby coral polyps and colonies are.
