Carrying special adhesives, 30 scuba divers plunged 20 feet deep underwater at the Hundred Islands National Park (HINP) here on Dec. 13 to transplant coral fragments, part of a process needed to revive the park’s degenerating coral reefs. For more than an hour, the deep waters were a portrait of an efficient assembly line: one diver, using a steel brush, scrubbed the rocks, while another hammered on nails. A third diver planted a coral fragment beside the nails, aided by a fourth diver who fastened it to the nails using a zip tie. Then the final touch: the diver glued the coral fragment to the rock to ensure it stayed in place, using Pioneer epoxy clay. This sequence followed coral restoration technology, said Virna Salac, national coordinator of the Department of Science and Technology’s coral restoration program. The detached coral fragments were gathered from the reef and grown in coral nurseries in shallow portions of the HINP.

Sotelo, Y. (2016, December 18). Adhesives work wonders for coral repair. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A8.