Today, I’m thrilled to bring you something truly beautiful (and a way for us to help the planet). This is the organization known as Coral Gardeners. Headed by environmentalist Titouan Bernicot, the organization’s purpose is not only to raise awareness about the threats to the world’s coral reefs but also to do practical things to try to reverse the damage we’ve done to our oceans.

In 2024, because of rising sea temperatures, there was an unprecedented global mass bleaching event. While not healthy, bleached corals are sick but not dead. They can bounce back if their environment improves. Coral Gardeners is on a mission to try and restore those ecosystems that are so crucial to healthy sea life. Their first coral repair effort began in 2021, and they’ve been expanding their work ever since. The group has been replanting corals in damaged reefs, and the replanted corals have a 90% survival rate. That’s very hopeful!

“In 2021, we headed to the remote Tuamotu Archipelago for our first outbound mission, made possible thanks to a grant from the National Geographic Society. The grant supported two field expeditions on Tikehau Island, where we assessed the health of the coral reefs to then develop the right restoration strategy with the local community. This mission led to the opening of a new Coral Gardeners site in French Polynesia, where corals are now blooming in Tikehau’s gardens, to help preserve the reef there, and thus, the livelihood of the locals.”

You can follow and support Coral Gardeners on their website and on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.