We have been extremely successful raising coral clones to expand the nursery stock and began outplant procedures.  By June of this year, our initial open water nursery site had seven different species totaling nearly 2000 individual colonies. Unfortunately, an unusual ocean temperature condition where the surface temperatures exceeded 32.22 degrees C for several days was the cause for about 30% loss of our nursery stock.  We immediately took steps to expand our operation so that we had nursery stations at several widely separated locations. This was necessary in order to prevent such losses in the future.

We now have several distinct open water nursery locations scattered throughout the archipelago.  This will help mitigate catastrophic losses and gives us a much better diversity of conditions under which we can propagate corals that are more resistant to specific negative influences.  The downside is that we have lost the convenience of having our entire nursery at one easily accessible location.  It now requires an entirely different labor management protocol in order to effectively maintain and service each site.  One of our most pressing and urgent needs is for another boat capable of safely navigating the waters of the archipelago and transporting personnel and equipment to each of the sites in a timely manner.

We are currently attempting to manage the sites with one 8 person panga, one 4 person panga and the barge we use for setting artificial coral reef structures.  What is desperately needed is another eight person craft that will safely transport people, equipment, and corals from site to site and from the main base to the individual sites.

Having two fully utilitarian boats available is also insurance against the loss of capability to maintain the nursery if the single all purpose boat is disabled for some reason.

An example of the kind of boat that would fit this need is a panga style 26 to 30 foot craft configured primarily as a diving oriented boat.  The cost in this area of Panama for a craft meeting that description is between 15 to 20 thousand dollars. 

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