In this four-minute video, we follow a team of divers in Maravelle as they replant coral on a reef damaged by years of anchoring and overfishing.
The process starts in an underwater nursery, where small fragments of coral hang from metal frames like washing on a line. After several months, when the fragments have grown, divers carry them in baskets to the reef and fix them in place with a marine-safe putty.
Many of the divers are former fishers who once worked the same waters. "My father fished here, and his father," says diver Tomas Ruel in the video. "Now I plant instead of take. The fish are coming back, and so are the tourists."
Scientists monitoring the project say live coral cover on the protected reefs has risen from about 18 per cent to 27 per cent in five years, though warming seas remain a serious threat.
Read our report on the reef's recovery for the full story and what comes next.
