Movement of coral rubble substrate hinders coral recruitment and reduces reef resilience and the ability to recover from damage. We report the results of two field trials to stabilise coral rubble on nearshore and offshore reefs in the Whitsunday region of the GBR. Rubble is recycled in-situ into coral gabions (natural fibre hessian mesh nets) and unconstrained mounds to form new coral “bommies” The coral gabions prevent the motion of the coral rubble, and provide sheltering and generate a new a complex and porous structure to promote the settlement of planulae. No coral rubble is removed or added in this process.
Field monitoring of bag movement, Crustose coralline algae (CCA) recruitment and algal growth is reported after 1 month, 7 months, 11 months and 3 years (April 2022) based on photographic records. The fish population, which was almost absent over the original coral rubble beds, increased significantly. After 7 and 11 months, there were small populations of juvenile and soft corals growing on some bags as well as other reef associated species such as a giant clam. The full paper will present full details of the methodology and monitoring, and discuss options for scaling up this rubble stabilisation technique.