If you've been visiting The Coral Centre or following us over the last few years, you will probably have seen the CoralPod sitting around Coral HQ.
What started as an idea has spent almost five years being designed, tested, changed, tested again and, occasionally, covered in algae while we tried to work out exactly what we were trying to achieve!
Well, we've finally reached a rather exciting milestone.
The first CoralPod has been deployed into the Indonesian Ocean.
And while it might look like a fairly simple structure sitting on the seabed, there is quite a lot of thinking behind it.
The CoralPod we've deployed is a basic prototype, approximately 700mm in diameter and made from four nested components that come together to form a single structure.
But, actually, the Pod itself isn't the bit we're most interested in.
It's what happens around it.
A slightly different approach to coral restoration
For nearly five years, our thinking around the CoralPod has been slightly different.
Rather than starting with the question, “How quickly can we grow coral on it?”, we've always been more interested in asking:
“Can we create habitat?”
Because when you look at a natural coral reef, it's pretty obvious that a reef is about much more than coral.
Yes, the coral is incredibly important, but so are all the spaces around it. The holes and crevices. The shelter underneath. The places where tiny fish can hide. The areas where crustaceans can live. The algae, microorganisms and everything else that starts to establish itself once you introduce a bit of three-dimensional structure.
A natural reef is complicated.
And that complexity is what allows so much life to exist there.
So rather than simply creating somewhere to stick a coral fragment, we've been trying to create something that could potentially become a little piece of habitat in its own right.
Where we put the first CoralPods was important
We could have put the first Pods somewhere that was already packed with coral and fish and then watched everything grow around them.
But that wouldn't really tell us very much.
Instead, the team deliberately chose an area that is predominantly coral rubble, with some scattered coral nearby.
There are also coral racks in the area used by local farmers for coral production for the aquarium trade.
What's interesting is that there isn't a huge amount of natural fish habitat in the area, and consequently there aren't huge numbers of fish using it.
And that's exactly why we wanted to put the Pods there.
We're essentially introducing something that isn't already there — structural complexity.
The hope is that the Pod creates somewhere for fish, juveniles and invertebrates to shelter, feed and move through.
And, if fish start using the area, there is potentially another benefit too. The fish may help local coral farmers by grazing algae from the corals growing on their nearby racks.
So, for us, this isn't simply about putting a structure on the seabed and seeing how much coral we can grow on it.
It's about seeing whether we can create the conditions for a small ecosystem to start developing.
So what happens when you put two together?
For the first deployment, we've deliberately kept things quite simple.
Two CoralPods have been placed about a metre apart.
We're interested to see whether they create what we're calling a kind of “halo effect” — whether having two structures close together attracts and supports more marine life than having one structure on its own.
We've also placed two individual Pods about 10 metres apart.
That gives us something to compare.
It's a simple experiment, but that's part of the point.
Now we get to wait and see what nature does with them.
Will fish move in?
How quickly will the first organisms colonise them?
Will algae start growing across the surfaces?
Will we see juvenile fish using the spaces?
And will the two Pods positioned close together develop differently from the individual Pods?
We don't know yet.
And that's what makes this so exciting.
The coral comes later
One of the things we've been particularly keen to avoid is judging the success of the CoralPod purely by how quickly coral grows on it.
Of course, coral growth is important. Eventually, we'd like to see Acropora, Montipora and other corals growing across the structures.
But that's the next stage.
First, we want to understand how the habitat is being used.
If fish and other marine life start using the Pods before we've attached any coral, that's potentially just as interesting to us as seeing the first coral colony grow.
Because if we can demonstrate that adding structural complexity creates habitat and attracts marine life, then we've potentially got something much more interesting than a fancy coral plug holder!
And that's really the idea behind the CoralPod.
Nearly five years in the making
For those of you who've followed this project from the beginning, you'll know this hasn't happened overnight.
We've been working on the CoralPod for almost five years.
We've tested different designs and materials, changed manufacturing techniques, put prototypes into aquariums and watched how marine life interacts with them.
We've learned a lot.
We've also changed our minds about things along the way — which is probably exactly what should happen when you're developing something like this.
And now, after all that time, seeing the first CoralPod sitting on the seabed in Indonesia is a pretty special moment.
It's gone from an idea...
to a prototype...
to something we've been testing at Coral HQ...
and now it's sitting in the ocean.
But this isn't the finished product.
It's the beginning of the next experiment.
Now we get to watch what happens when we give nature a little bit of structure and let it take over.
And, if you've been asking us for the last few years, “So, when are you actually going to put one in the ocean?”
Well...
we finally have.
The CoralPod is a collaboration between Artecology, Future Oceans Foundation and The Coral Centre, bringing together ecological design, coral restoration and aquarium expertise.
We're incredibly excited to see where it goes from here.
This version keeps the science and reasoning, but makes it feel much more like a story and less like a research proposal. It also gives you a nice opportunity to talk directly to the customers who have literally watched the CoralPod sitting at Coral HQ for years.