Coral spawns in new specialist DoE lab

(CNS): The Department of Environment’s new Coral Spawning Lab was introduced to the community last week with an unexpected spawning event after laboratory adjustments of annual temperature in line with solar and lunar cycles triggered corals to spawn. The two coral labs were set up just a few weeks ago and filled with 256 gallons of seawater. They are now home to some of Cayman’s most important reef-building coral species.

Corals spawn each year with the full moon in late August or early September, but it was uncertain whether the newly relocated corals would be healthy enough to spawn in the lab while the annual event in the wild was happening this week.

But DoE marine biologists, led by Marine Research Unit Manager Dr Croy McCoy and Marine Research Officer Cody Panton, became the first in the region to facilitate a lab-based coral spawning event using this new technology. They were assisted by Professor Mike Sweet (University of Derby, UK) and Dr Jamie Craggs (London Aquarium, UK) for the first spawning.

When asked if he was surprised by the spawning event, Dr McCoy said he was both elated and relieved. “We were always hoping for the new lab corals to spawn because the lab was set up to maintain their annual cycle, which relies heavily on the moon, with a shift for them to spawn much earlier and in the day,” he said in a DoE social media post.

“But with relocation, there is always a risk of corals being stressed, and with two moons this month, we just weren’t sure if they were going to be established enough to spawn. So I was elated to learn it had happened, more or less when we expected it to. Nothing is more gratifying than seeing the spark of an idea be supported enough to move forward, overcoming challenges and uncertainty, into fruition,” McCoy added.

He explained that fruition is the beginning of new research, which he hopes could be foundational for marine conservation and coral restoration for the Cayman Islands.

“Most importantly, these two Coral Spawning Labs are another tool in our toolbox to tackle the current coral reef crisis we face regionally and globally,” the marine expert stated. ‘We can now spawn corals multiple times in the lab each year instead of once a year, which happens in the wild, to help reseed our reefs with baby corals. We extend a huge thank you to the Fosters Group for sponsoring the labs and making this incredible research possible here in the Cayman Islands,” Dr McCoy added.

Divers across the Cayman Islands have been night diving this week, hoping to witness the miraculous moment when corals release their “bundles” of eggs and sperm.