Aggressor Adventures and the Turks and Caicos Aggressor staff have joined forces with the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund (TCRF) for coral reef conservation.
Last week, the yacht staff and TCRF volunteer divers spent three days at sea surveying coral reefs and tending to ‘coral ladders’ for reef restoration efforts. The conservation accomplishments included:
- Nine Aggressor Adventures guests volunteered for coral reef surveys and restoration work;
- Volunteer divers were trained in 14 coral species identifications and diagnostics of coral diseases;
- The TCRF dive leaders, volunteer divers, and Aggressor staff worked together to complete six critical Atlantic Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) surveys as well as 40 roving diver surveys to document and quantify impacts from stony coral tissue loss disease on the reefs of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI);
- The team selected and mapped 16 coral colonies for disease treatment and future monitoring;
- And, the team set-up a new nursery structure for corals in an existing coral nursery while being trained in necessary nursery maintenance; Aggressor Adventures adopted a coral ladder complete with six rungs of fast-growing, endangered staghorn coral fragments that were cataloged, re-tagged, and hung by both volunteers and staff working together.
This vital conservation work was, in part, made possible by Aggressor Adventures providing a discounted charter for local divers. “As a company with a focus on sustainability, we are pleased to partner with the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund and help support the import conservation work they do locally to protect their beautiful coral reefs that we all love to dive,” says Wayne B Brown, CEO of Aggressor Adventures.
“The work we do benefits all watersports operators as well as all the residents of the TCI. We are extremely grateful to Aggressor Adventures for the support they have given TCRF over the past ten years which has allowed us to continue our important work,” said Don Stark, Chairman of the Turks and Caicos Reef Fund. “This was an amazingly productive and fun trip that gave us the opportunity to complete a great deal of work in a very short period of time,” said TCRF Project Manager and Trip Leader, Alizee Zimmermann.
