Coral Hero - Snorkeling - Gardening - Planting

Become a
coral hero

Become
a coral
hero

You can help bringing corals back to life

Donate Hands-on Activities

You can help bringing
corals back to life

Coral Herosapmadu2022-09-16T19:23:20+00:00

Adopt a Coral

A coral

fragment

Price $50

A small

coral frame

Price $200

A large

coral frame

Price $350

Any given amount you wish to donate will help us care for the Coral Reefs of Culebra Bay

Hands-on

experiences

Coral snorkeling 101

Visit a coral nursey and look at the ocean from another perspective.

SKILLS: SNORKELING

What you get

Coral gardening

Be a scientist and ocean
conservationist for the day.

SKILLS: DIVING

What you get

Coral planting

COMING SOON

A unique hands-on coral experience to plant coral fragments in your own personalized sponsored structure.

SKILLS: SNORKELING

What you get

Coral Planting

How do we do it?

We carefully cut out and collect small fragments of wild coral colonies which are least sensitive to rising water temperatures/ocean acidity.

1

The selected fragments get placed onto nursery structures in one of our restoration sites where they can grow under best conditions.

2

The fragments and the environmental conditions regularly get monitored and the structures get cleaned periodically.

3

Once the fragments grow into mature Corals we cut out fragments which then get planted onto the degraded Coral Reefs of Culebra Bay.

4

Impact

+4,500

Growing
Fragments

47

Nurseries

8

Organizations
Involved

83%

Survival
Rate

124

Volunteers Caring
for the Corals

The importance of coral reef

500 million people worldwide directly rely on Coral Reefs.

50% of the oxygen we breathe comes from Coral Reefs as they are the Rainforests of
the sea.

They provide home to 20% of marine life.

Culebra reef garden alliance

Frequently asked questions

WHY ARE CORAL REEFS IN DANGER?

Climate change and other factors lead to rising water temperatures that upset the symbiosis between the coral polyps and the algae that nourishes them. This causes the coral to slowly starve to death exposing its bright white mineral skeleton (so called coral bleaching).

Furthermore, rising amounts of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere causes the acidity of seawater to increase. This makes it harder for coral to build skeleton which ultimately puts all marine life depending on coral reefs at risk.

WHAT IS CULEBRA REEF GARDENS?

In just a decade, the coral cover in Bahía Culebra has decreased from 60% to 4%, added to the loss of diversity of fish and invertebrates.

In February 2019, the first workshop was held to plan a coral gardening pilot in Guanacaste thereby establishing an organized group to develop a comprehensive solution for coral restoration in Costa Rica. As a result, a public-private alliance was created between the National System of Conservation Areas, the University of Costa Rica, the German Cooperation Agency, the tourism company Península Papagayo and Raising Coral Costa Rica.

In 2020, the alliance established a cooperative agreement to launch a coral restoration plan in the area. In August 2019, the first theoretical-practical coral reef restoration workshop was held in Guanacaste and, a month later, the first three nurseries with coral fragments were installed in Playa Jícaro.

HOW CAN I BECOME A CORAL HERO?

Donate and take part in one of our hands-on activities: coral snorkeling, coral gardening and coral planting. And please, always wear reef-safe sunscreen when you are swimming in the ocean.

HOW WILL MY DOLLARS BE INVESTED IN?

With your $50USD, $USD200, or $USD350 donation, you will cover the annual costs of maintenance of one of our coral fragments, small or large frames. We will release an annual impact report to make sure all our donors receive the latest updates and information on the impact of their donations.

IS MY DONATION TAX DEDUCTIBLE?

Yes, we partner with Amigos de Costa Rica – , a qualified IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization; eligible to receive contributions deductible as charitable gifts under U.S. law.