At Gayana Eco Resort they have a Marine Ecology Research Centre. At the centre they are breeding giant clams and they are also planting coral fragments back into the sea.

 

As a visitor you get the opportunity to learn more about the work at the centre through a video. Then you can have a closer look at some different sea stars, crabs and sea cucumbers in the touch pool.

 

The centre also offers an 'Adopt a Coral' package. To support the work at the centre we decided to adopt a coral when we were there! The centre's divers have collected broken coral fragments from the sea bottom and those fragments are replanted with the help of visitors at the centre. We picked a coral fragment and planted it in a little bowl with cement. The coral will now stay in a stabilization tank for two weeks before a diver will place the cement base with the coral in the coral garden in the sea.

 

At the centre they will monitor the coral for one year and send us updates of how much it is growing. :-) So now we are waiting for the first report, the notification that our little coral baby has been planted in the sea.

 

I really like this kind of initiatives and this was actually one of the reasons that I wanted to stay at Gayana Eco Resort when we went to Gaya Island.

 

If you want to read more about the incredible work they are doing at the centre, you can klick on this link: Marine Ecology Research Centre