Dee Dee Vaughan Smause with Plant A Million Corals joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about the project.
Plant A Million Corals is a land-based coral restoration facility.
Vaughan Smause said, “We are a locally based organization here in the Florida Keys although we work both here and internationally. At our farm in Summerland Key we grow corals for outplanting, as well as technology training, and technology transfer. As of right now we’re at a little over 30,000 corals. By the end of the month, we’ll be at 50,000 corals. By the end of next year, we will actually be at a coral production capacity of 1.1 million corals.”
That’s simultaneous growth.
Vaughan Smause said, “If anyone wants to come to our facility, it is open to the public, we’re free. Donations are always happily accepted as we are a nonprofit. But you can come and see over 30,000 corals this morning. When we get to our 1.1 million capacity, what we will be doing is growing a million corals every year for outplanting. Those corals will then be placed out on the reef in South Florida, but the majority of them will actually remain here in Monroe County on the Florida Keys reef track.”
There was an outplanting recently.
Vaughan Smause said, “The majority of our corals, like I said, are staying at our farm until we build up our full brood stock of a million corals that every year, we can take million corals outplant them from the remaining 100,000 as our brood stock grow up that large number every year, but we were really excited two weeks ago, to partner with an incredible young woman, Kelly O’Donnell is working on her PhD, doing a study of outplanting coral at different depths as a way to ensure their survival during these hot summers. We were able to give her just under 200 corals to use for her experiment. So it was really neat, even though it’s not a large number, it was a milestone for us as our first corals actually getting out planted that we’ve produced at our farm.”
There’s an event on August 17 to help with coral restoration.
Vaughan Smause said, “We are doing an event called Uncorking Hope, where we will be doing a wine tasting with paired bites at my new joint above the Square Grouper here in Cudjoe Key. For $50, you get to have unlimited wine tasting, snacks, and learn about what we’re doing with coral restoration. We will have live music, a silent auction and just a general good time. This is a repeat of our event last year, which was sold out. Tickets are available through our social media as well as on our website. We like to have a party with a purpose and so our fundraisers are foremost fun-raisers as well. A great way to involve the community, get people either involved if it’s their first time learning about us or a great way to both hang out and thank our supporters.”
Volunteers are also welcome at Plant A Million Corals.
Vaughan Smause said, “Absolutely, we can’t do what we do alone. It’s wonderful that we get to involve our local community. If anyone wants to volunteer, you can find our information here on our website. We’re always looking for volunteers to help us with maintaining our tanks, maintaining our corals, making new corals and it’s always a different day down on the farm. Our facility is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9 to 4, with no reservations necessary. On weekends, if you want to contact us through our website, we can set up a tour for you. We are a completely off the grid facility. So everything’s run on solar power. So come on down and see what we do, get to see corals up close and personal without even getting your feet wet.”
For more information, click here: https://plantamillioncorals.org/