Mission, save the gorgonians: pioneering plan to ‘reforest’ marine forests

An alliance between scientists, companies and volunteers launches in Barcelona the first European program to recover these corals, key to the ecosystem

The coast of Barcelona has just become the first European laboratory for a ambitious project to ‘reforest’ the waters of the Mediterranean with gorgonians: a fascinating kind of key corals for the survival of many species and that, in recent years, it has been seriously threatened by overfishing and the advance of the climate crisis. Last summer, without going any further, the intense heat wave caused “a real fire under the waters” and left some of these seascapes “completely charred”. Now, an alliance between scientists, companies and volunteers intends to create a prosperous ‘forest’ of orange gorgonians under the waters of Barcelona.

The initiative, promoted by the consultancy ‘Belong to Sea’ and the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), will make Barcelona the first maritime city in the Mediterranean with a program specifically designed to save gorgonians. For this, on the one hand, the largest study to date to study the species found in the waters of Barcelona (especially in breakwater areas) and, on the other hand, a plan will be launched to ‘reforest’ these forests of these corals.

“We are facing the first program in the entire Mediterranean focused on gorgonians. We are launching it in the waters of Barcelona but, one day, we may have to use it to ‘reforest’ other points where this species is disappearing”, explains the biologist Josep Maria Gili, from the ICM-CSIC Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography.

“We are facing the first program in the entire Mediterranean focused on gorgonians”

At this time, the gorgonians stand out as one of the most emblematic and threatened species of the Mediterranean sea. In some points along the coast, in just a decade the populations of these corals have been practically decimated. “We still don’t really know why, but Barcelona has become a kind of ‘oasis’ for orange gorgonians. While in some parts of the Mediterranean we see that gorgonians are disappearing, here it seems that they are thriving very well,” explains Janire Salazar, an ICM researcher and one of the scientists leading the study of these animals. “We are investigating what is special about this species or the waters of Barcelona so that this is possible,” adds the expert.

“Barcelona has become a kind of ‘oasis’ for orange gorgonians”

Three steps to save corals

Saving the gorgonians is not only saving a species. According to the scientists who are leading this program, these corals they are like the trees of a forest. The branches of it protect the larvae of emblematic species such as sea bream, sea bass and seahorses from the Mediterranean. The loss of these marine forests could also jeopardize the survival of many other animals that inhabit Barcelona’s waters. For this reason, as explained by the promoters of the ‘Gorgonia Barcelona’ project in a conversation with El Periódico, from the Prensa Ibérica group, the objective of this program is, in reality, to rehabilitate battered marine ecosystems from the city.

The plan, designed by a team of experts, will be rolled out in three phases. In the first, which has already started, there will be monthly dives towards the areas where these coral species live (about twenty meters deep from the coast). During this stage, scientists from the Institute of Marine Sciences and divers from the Catalan Federation of Underwater Activities will collect healthy ‘cuttings’ of orange gorgonians (‘Leptogorgia sarmentosa’): the species that, against all odds, is surviving well in the waters of Barcelona.

In the second phase, the marine biologists of the team will plant the gorgonians in experimental aquariums and care for them for three to five weeks. During this stage, it is also planned to launch a campaign so that companies in the city can visit these coral ‘nurseries’, feed the gorgonians with their own hands and learn more about their vulnerable state in nature. At the moment, there are already a hundred workers interested in participating in this initiative. “Need increase citizen awareness about the species that live in our waters because, after all, if we don’t know them it will be more difficult to understand the need to care for them and protect the environment in which they live”, explain Cristina Arenas and María Coll, founders of ‘Belong to Sea’ and promoters of this initiative.

The third phase of this project foresees return the orange gorgonians to the waters of the Mediterranean. To do this, a team of experts will carefully transport these coral colonies to the sea and plant them back in their natural habitat. From there, a monitoring program will also be initiated to ensure that these species thrive properly in Barcelona’s waters. “The strong point of this project is that it goes far beyond the scientific. We are facing a citizen science initiative in which everyone, from researchers to companies and volunteers, contributes our grain of sand to save this species,” explains Gili enthusiastically. while observing one of the aquariums in which the first colonies of gorgonians are being cultivated.