Fluval has announced that it is signing on as the newest sponsor of the Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF), commencing with a $5,000 donation.Â
Rolf C. Hagen (proprietor of the Fluval brand) is a family company driven by the common bond of love and compassion for animals and this donation will benefit the non-profit CRF group in creating and maintaining offshore nurseries for threatened coral species.
Creator of the popular Fluval Sea line of aquarium products, Hagen has already taken a direct interest in the research of coral reefs and their benefits to life on land and off. Coral reefs are often referred to as "rainforests of the ocean" — a fitting term given that these beautiful and highly threatened ecosystems support the most diverse habitats of sea life. It’s estimated that these undersea gardens sustain about one quarter of all ocean life, although they take up less than two percent of the sea floor.
The live coral itself, which is susceptible to threats such as pollution, rising water temperatures, overfishing and destructive fishing, is an integral part of these ecosystems, providing essential shelter for other life. As coral species become threatened, these ecosystems have begun to disappear, affecting not only sea life, but our own food chain. Coral life is also essential to the local Florida economy (where the CRF is based), in addition to national and worldwide economic systems.
To illustrate the severity of the threat, Staghorn coral has experienced a 98% decline in the last 30 years alone, with Elkhorn coral not far behind — declining 90% in that same time. Thanks to generous donations and dedicated volunteers, however, both species are now being grown in multiple offshore nurseries by the CRF, who has helped developed tens of thousands of corals, not to mention outplanted 4,000 Staghorn corals at over 20 reefs throughout the Florida Keys.
Along with the recent donation, Hagen also sent Aquatic Development Manager Francis Yupangco on a dive with the CRF to outplant coral from an underwater tree nursery back into the local ecosystem. Yupangco participated in the dive not only to connect to a restoration group he personally believes in, but also to document the occasion and educate consumers about this critical environmental cause. "The importance of this project isn’t in a single donation or dive – it’s in the knowledge we can share about a substantial threat to a beautiful and essential habitat," said Yupangco.
The Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) is a non-profit conservation organisation dedicated to creating offshore nurseries and restoration programs for threatened coral species. CRF is leading the development of new nursery and restoration techniques. Tens of thousands of corals are grown and maintained in multiple offshore nurseries. After a year in the nursery, corals are outplanted to a degraded reef. With the help of students, volunteers, scientists, dive operators, public aquariums, and community groups, thousands of corals grown in CRF’s nurseries have already been outplanted on coral reefs.
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