Successful restoration of typical degraded coastal coral reefs ——a restoration of coral coverage at Wuzhizhou Island

Since coral reefs globally suffered from severe degradation threats, coral rehabilitation becomes a broadlyapplied key tool for the coral reef restoration. In this study, coral transplantation used to restore the coverage of scleractinian corals on a typical degraded coastal coral reef and participation of local tourism company for its benefit in activities of coral reef restoration were reported. In June 2017, 6 000 coral fragments of eight species were transplanted to the reefs at Wuzhizhou Island. Three years later, 61.3% transplanted corals survived, and the reefbuilding corals’coverage in restoration area increased from 9.3% to 35.3%, mainly resulted from the growth of transplanted corals. This experiment has effectively restored the coral coverage on the coral reefs. The experiment improved not only the health of coral reefs, but also the underwater landscape while it encouraged the local tourism company to participate the marine ecological protection. This study shows that it is feasible and effective to restore coral reef using coral reef rehabilitation technology in degraded coastal coral reefs.