Coral spawning at the Banda Islands

After three years of tracking the times when corals are spawning, we are now quite confident with predicting the dates. Marine Science Alumni Andika from Bogor Agricultural University, who did his Bachelor thesis about coral spawning on Banda in 2017/2018, revisits us this year. He actually came to Banda to teach kids in our education center on Hatta Island. As the timing is right, he also got the chance to witness more spawning and collect some coral eggs for later DNA barcoding. This season, interestingly, corals spawned in October and November. They surprised us in October because water temperatures were still unusually cold. There still is a lot to find out about what triggers them apart from the moon and temperature!