Many scuba divers will know the devastation of seeing coral reefs becoming bleached and dying. That was the case for Leon Boey, founder of Livingseas Asia, so he decided to do something about it. He’s now celebrating 400,000 corals planted.
The replanting started as a side project for his dive centre in 2015. “That all changed in 2020 with the pandemic and with the loss of tourism,” he says. “I decided that we would go full tilt into restoration and see if we could build and scale that into a business.”
In the years that followed, the restoration work has brought life back to the reef. "We're only really focusing on planting the corals, but the fish life has exploded on the site on its own, with clouds of damselfish, butterflyfish, and other reef fish bringing in the larger predators such as jacks, barracuda and sharks,” he says.
"Even dolphins have started to make an appearance, chasing schools of sardines that have spawned on our site."
Sometimes, while working on the restoration site, the team see tiny reef fish coming to check out their efforts – Boey loves these adorable moments. “It's like they are little dogs, wagging their tails, showing appreciation to us for creating homes and food for them,” he says.
For Boey, seeing this ecosystem thriving is much more important than the exact numbers of corals they’ve planted. That said, he isn’t going to stop at 400,000. “Currently, we are at 410,000 [corals planted] and we might even hit 500,000 this year,” he says.
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Despite this huge success, the problem facing reefs around the world can feel overwhelming. “We are honestly running out of time to save them,” says Boey.
He hopes that other people around the world will start similar projects. For this to work, companies need to make sure they think about sustainable ways to fund restoration on a large scale. For example, Livingseas plants a new structure for each tourist who visits them.
Corals grow very slowly so it’s important for people to have patience and be prepared for the journey. “Conservation is a very long game, so you have to know that you are going to be committed to it,” Boey says.
“Small actions compound over time, and eventually you'll get to a stage where you look back, and suddenly you're at 400,000 corals planted!”
Top image: coral planting in Bali. Credit: Zoe Lower
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