Corals are romantic animals. Among varieties such as the elkhorn and boulder, the males and females wait all year long, until there is a full summer moon, to reproduce. Each coral simultaneously releases its eggs or sperm into the ocean and conception occurs. The current then carries the now fertilized eggs away from its parents to start a new coral colony.
It’s stories like these that Fairmont Mayakoba, Riviera Maya and its partner Oceanus, A.C., a Quintana Roo, Mexico, organization dedicated to the conservation and sustainable use of coastal and marine resources, like to share with hotel guests to make them feel more invested in helping preserve coral. “The importance of education is that when you learn these facts, you will be more responsible,” says Tatiana Morfin, who oversees communications and projects for Oceanus. It’s facts like how just a few inches of growth may take decades, she says, that illustrate why such sustainability efforts are so needed.
Coral reefs offer many benefits. They are vital for maintaining a thriving underwater ecosystem, they provide the shoreline’s first line of defense against the massive waves stirred up by hurricanes and they give locales such as Mexico’s Riviera Maya their soft white sand.
Yet the world’s coral reefs are disappearing. In just the last 50 years, 30 percent of the world’s reefs have been lost, according to Oceanus. Pollution, the Earth’s warming waters, ocean acidification from the presence of more carbon dioxide in the air and bad practices from tourists (like wearing harmful sunscreen while swimming nearby) are killing them. And it’s difficult to replace these delicate animals: coral only grows .2 to 1 inch per year.
Their destruction is a particularly pressing concern for the Riviera Maya hotel, which sits on the Mesoamerican Reef. The second largest in the world behind Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the reef spans the long coastlines of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. “In 2008, more than 50 percent of the Mesoamerican Reef was classified in ‘good condition,’ but for 2020, only 9 percent remain in that category,” says Gabriela Nava, co-founder and executive director of Oceanus. “The rest are in the regular or bad condition category.”
Fairmont Mayakoba sought out ways it could lead in protecting the reef, and it became the first hotel to join forces with Oceanus in 2015 to help the nonprofit rebuild it by planting coral nurseries. To revitalize the reef, the trained professionals at Oceanus gingerly pick up fallen-but-still-healthy coral branches from the ocean floor and fasten each onto a PVC pipe fitting, which is then placed on larger, water-safe PVC assemblies that serve as the base for the underwater nurseries. After the fragments are stabilized and reach a certain size, Oceanus workers detach the individual coral and transplant each into its own round base, which is then transferred to a restoration area at Fairmont Mayakoba. The hope is that these small coral patches, which sit on the ocean bottom seven to nine feet apart, will grow over their bases, eventually connecting to one another to form a small colony.
The Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star hotel assists with this work by drawing attention to the cause and helping to organize the plantings. Fairmont Mayakoba plans around seven outings per year, during which Oceanus educates guests on the importance of coral and then invites them to scuba dive or snorkel with the group to see the three nurseries at Puerto Morelos National Park, which sits about 17 miles north of the luxury hotel. Thus far, almost 4,000 colonies have been planted in front of Fairmont Mayakoba, and with the hotel’s support, Oceanus is about to start two more sites nearby.
According to Silvia Ferrer, Fairmont Mayakoba’s director of marketing and public relations, the property chooses high-occupancy times for when it invites guests to participate, thus ensuring a larger number of people joining the endeavor. It offered two such outings this week in honor of Earth Day. The next one will be in June for World Oceans Day.
Even if you aren’t lucky enough to embark on one of these outings, there are still ways to aid the restoration efforts. You can adopt a coral. For US$20, you will receive a base for a coral and you can choose to have your name or a special message written on it. Oceanus will plant the base and then send you an underwater photo of your coral along with an adoption certificate.
The activity has obvious appeal for families and couples, and businesses have joined in, with one company adopting 100 corals to be strategically placed to spell out its name on the bottom of the ocean. According to Nava, Oceanus’ goal is to plant 10,000 coral colonies a year regionally along the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican Caribbean.
Guests also can chat with the staff at Fairmont Mayakoba’s on-the-beach activity center. Considered one of Oceanus’ “brigades,” the employees act as the group’s on-property ambassadors, taking time to answer any questions about coral conservation. They also can send you out on a canoe, catamaran or kayak to explore the coral habitat. The water is typically crystal clear so you can see the coral from above — which will only remain possible with the efforts put forth by Oceanus and Fairmont Mayakoba.
