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The Nursery Hack That Pays for Itself · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  This week we are focusing on coral reefs and coral reef restoration.
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  And when you have coral reef restoration, you have coral nurseries.
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  And coral nurseries need constant maintenance.
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  They need constant attention.
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  That maintenance is super expensive and is relentless.
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  And when I talked to Mike Goldberg, which you're gonna hear the interview on Friday,
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  his answer wasn't just to hire more staff.
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  It was to let paying customers do it for the fun of it.
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  Now, he owns a dive shop, so the paying customers are scuba divers, and he
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  wants to build a funding model so small that in years of collecting it, not
• 0:34
  one person has ever really complained.
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  But none of that makes sense until you understand what coral actually is and
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  why cutting a piece off doesn't kill it.
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  We're gonna find out all about that on today's episode of the
• 0:46
  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  If you like to listen to this kind of stuff, where we're like talking about
• 0:50
  coral reef restoration, coral reef health, ocean news, ocean updates, stories about
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  the ocean, this is the podcast for you.
• 0:56
  So hit that follow button right now if you haven't, and you've been listening
• 0:59
  for a while, don't worry, I'm not mad.
• 1:01
  But I'd love for you to hit that follow button so you don't miss any
• 1:03
  of the episodes, Monday to Friday.
• 1:06
  So this week it's all about corals.
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  If you've missed Monday's and Tuesday's episode, you can go
• 1:10
  back and watch or listen to those.
• 1:12
  And if you wanna stay more in tuned, just hit that follow button.
• 1:15
  You'll get it all in your podcast feed.
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  So this is what is fun.
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  All right.
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  Before we get into the whole restoration and how the funding model works, let's
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  talk about what coral actually is.
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  Because a lot of people think coral's a plant, but it's an animal, not
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  a plant or a rock, it's an animal.
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  It sits on a rock.
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  It kinda looks like a plant in some ways because it doesn't move very
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  much, and sometimes it sways in the water, but it's an animal, right?
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  It's a colony of animals.
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  And what looks like one coral head is actually just a colony of thousands,
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  sometimes even millions, of individual tiny animals called polyps.
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  And each polyp has a small sac-like body with a mouth ringed by tentacles.
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  And neighboring polyps in a colony are physically connected
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  to a shared living tissue.
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  So each polyp secretes calcium carbonate underneath itself, so right underneath.
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  And it's the buildup of that limestone-like skeleton, generation
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  after generation of polyps building on top of what came before, that forms
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  the physical structure of a reef.
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  Now, most reef-building corals also host a second organism
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  living inside their own tissue.
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  It's a photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae.
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  It's a genuine partnership.
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  The coral gives the algae a protected home, plus carbon dioxide and waste
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  compounds the algae needs, and the algae photosynthesize, and hand back
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  the majority of the coral's food energy, plus its color, the beautiful,
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  beautiful colors of the reef.
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  Now, when a coral is badly stressed, heat being the main trigger, it expels
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  the algae, exposing clear tissue over a white limestone skeleton is what
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  bleaching actually looks like, and why a bleached coral isn't automatically dead.
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  It's lost its main food source and its color, so it's vulnerable, but the animal
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  itself may still be alive underneath.
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  If the conditions that cause the bleaching subside, then the zooxanthellae
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  will come back, or they'll get new zoo-xant-xanthellae in their system.
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  So the algae will come back, it'll go into the corals, the corals will
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  revitalize, and they'll be saved.
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  But if it's a long period of time, they will go, it won't be good.
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  Now, corals reproduce two completely different ways, and ICARE's whole nursery,
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  ICARE about the coral, like, that's the one we're talking about with Michael,
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  the whole nursery operation is built on deliberately harnessing one of them.
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  That's asexual reproduction or fragmentation.
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  And that is where coral gardening actually is.
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  So in nature, storms and wave action routinely break
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  pieces off of coral colony.
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  If a broken fragment lands somewhere stable, it can reattach
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  and keep growing into a brand-new, fully independent colony.
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  A genetic clone, per se, of the parent, so the genetic makeup is exactly the same.
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  Now, restoration practitioners deliberately recreate this.
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  They cut a small fragment, typically about 5 to 10% of a healthy donor coral,
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  so like an adult coral, that's what we call, like, the parent coral, the
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  colony, which is why it doesn't harm the parent, so you don't take off too much.
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  The colony is made up of thousands of genetically identical polyps, so losing
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  a small piece is a bit like taking a cutting from a large, healthy plant.
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  That fragment is then mounted onto a substrate, a cement or ceramic
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  plug, or tied onto a nursery line and it'll grow out before eventually
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  being outplanted onto the reef.
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  So usually fixed into place with a non-toxic two-part marine epoxy.
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  So as it is cut, it's placed on this, like, ceramic tile or some
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  kind of ceramic plug or cement tile.
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  And then it has, like, a little of epoxy.
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  It solidifies there, and then it grows from there.
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  Now, fragments from the same original parent colony placed close enough to
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  another, will recognize each other as genetically identical and physically
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  fuse into a larger seamless colony.
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  So rather than staying a separate pieces.
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  This is likely exactly what Mike means later in the interview when he talks
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  about it, when he describes his own brain coral fragments, fusing eight
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  to 10 months after being out planted.
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  So what he does is he actually takes these brain corals, and he puts them up into
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  different spots on a rock, and they're probably separated by a few centimeters.
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  Then the corals will recognize each other, and the colonies will start
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  to grow on top of the rock and actually fuse together to make one
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  big colony, which is insane, right?
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  It's insane.
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  I just think it's such a cool way that these animals can survive, like the wave
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  actions and storms that hit shallow reefs.
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  As they break off, maybe sexual reproduction doesn't always happen,
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  which we'll talk about in a sec, but as they break off, they can continue
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  to grow and grow out and cover the substrate with corals, wall-to-wall
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  corals, which is what we want.
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  That's a healthy coral reef.
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  Now, sexual reproduction is the other path, and it's the source of
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  real genetic diversity, not clones.
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  These are like the asexual is genetically identical, sexual
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  is genetically different.
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  About 85% of reef-building corals species are broadcast spawners.
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  So they release eggs and sperm into the water at the same time in a synchronized
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  event cued by water temperature, the lunar cycle, and time of night, often just
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  once a year, and it's a beautiful sight.
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  Like, people have taken videos of it.
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  People just love when it happens.
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  Now, a fertilized egg, any kind of fertilized eggs develop into free-swimming
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  larvae called planulae, which drift, eventually settle somewhere, and start
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  a brand-new genetically unique colony.
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  The remaining species brood, fertilizing internally and releasing
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  some developed larvae directly.
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  This is the biological basis for larval propagation, like coral IVF technique
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  covered in Monday's episode that we did.
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  It's a completely different way to restoration method from the
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  fragment-based nursery work that we're gonna describe in a second.
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  What's nice though is, like, you have these two different ways.
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  One is genetically identical, which doesn't help the diversity of the
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  reef from a genetic standpoint, but allows the coverage to
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  happen in case it's breaking off.
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  But it's easier to fragment.
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  IVF is something that I would imagine is fairly new over the last decade or so,
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  and we're get- learning more and more about it, and there's, there are pop-up…
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  We're gonna actually talk to somebody later on in the next couple of months
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  about coral IVF and what that takes, what it is, and how difficult it is.
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  Like, what are the challenges and how they've overcome some of those challenges.
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  It's quite interesting to be able to cover, so looking
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  forward to that interview.
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  Now, what's interesting is when you combine the fragging and the sexual
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  reproduction, you kinda come into, like, a really good success for replanting reefs.
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  So if you think about it, if you frag reefs, so going back to that brain
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  coral example that Mike talks about in the interview on Friday, you have
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  these brain corals that come up, and they're up on the rocks, and then
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  they start to fuse together, and there's, like, one big brain coral.
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  But then it's healthy, so it says, "Hey, you know what? We can sexually
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  reproduce." So the eggs and the fertile, and the sperm go up into the air, it
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  gets fertilized, and then the eggs kinda drop down wherever the larvae starts
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  to drop down wherever they need to.
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  Now, that's genetic diversity.
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  So by fragmenting genetic clones, you start to increase the potential down
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  the road as they become healthy and become adults, you get sexual maturity,
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  you'll get sexual reproduction, you'll get genetically different offspring.
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  Not just the clones itself.
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  So that's pretty cool.
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  Now what's interesting is like now you can do this on a local level.
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  This is very difficult to do on a global level, as we talked
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  about on Monday's episode.
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  So you have to do it on a local level.
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  And ICARE, which is the organization that we're gonna be talking to,
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  like Mike Goldberg from ICARE.
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  He's the president.
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  He's installing, like the organization with Dr. Kylie Smith, they're
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  installing nine offshore pop-up nurseries, one per restoration site.
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  So they have nine restoration sites.
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  And what's happened here is that the restoration sites, if you have like
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  one headquarter, it's more challenging to bring them from like the central
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  headquarter where you have the nurseries, where you're growing these frags, and
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  bring them out to all the different sites.
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  It's more stressful.
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  There's more of a risk of these things not doing well because
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  there's a distance there.
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  The further the restoration site is from the headquarter, the more risk there
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  is of that fragment not surviving, not only the journey, but the outplant
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  and everything like that, right?
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  When you actually go plant it in the reef.
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  So what Mike wanted to do is say, "Hey, you know what we're gonna
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  do," and ICARE wants to do, is they want to install these pop-up sites.
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  And so the concept itself originated from Ken Nedimyer, who piloted
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  it in a couple of locations.
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  So Mike describes it in the interview.
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  He's talking it like taking it to another level, giving every restoration
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  site its own dedicated nursery, which I think is pretty cool, 'cause then
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  you can start looking at what that restoration site had in the first place,
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  and you're trying to recreate that site with the frags that were there.
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  So you're not just making all the same restoration site.
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  You're not making all the same corals.
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  It could be different corals in different areas 'cause that's
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  what made it possible, right?
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  Natural selection.
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  Now this problem solves like the offshore nursery maintenance is, is intense.
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  It's intense and it's constant.
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  It never stops.
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  So ICARE's dive boats and partner boats in the Keys take paying
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  customers, paying scuba diving customers out daily, like anyway.
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  They're out there just doing the work, like just scuba diving,
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  'cause like I'm a scuba diver.
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  I would go and I would pay Mike's dive shop to be like, "Hey, take me out.
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  I wanna go see these reefs in the Keys." The Florida Keys are beautiful.
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  I know they're not what they used to be, but I wanna go out there,
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  I wanna see what they've done.
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  And then I would actually… They-- He would say, "Hey, do you wanna participate
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  in planting some coral?" Like, "Yes.
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  Absolutely I wanna do that.
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  Show me how.
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  I will do it, and this will be amazing." So he's like, "Okay, cool.
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  But a part of your dive, whether you do it or not, you're gonna pay an extra $2.
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  You're gonna pay an extra $2 'cause this goes into the fund that helps us grow
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  out each of these corals." Now it's not enough to have a whole program for ICARE.
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  But it adds to the pot of funding that allows… 'Cause like I said,
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  it's very expensive and it's tireless.
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  You've gotta be on there all the time.
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  The divers can choose whether they wanna dive the reef for fun or make a left
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  turn into the nursery and say, "Hey, Can we do restoration work instead?"
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  You know, it's their choice.
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  The financial logic is great.
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  Like, you don't have to pay as a group every time you go out and do these reefs.
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  Everybody's paying because everybody benefits from a healthy reef.
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  Everybody benefits from a restored reef.
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  And the more you restore, the more resilient that reef can get to all the
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  other factors that are affecting it, climate change, nutrient loading, coastal
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  development, all that kind of stuff.
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  Now, coral and sponges are nursed just feet away, like from where
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  they're actually gonna be outplanted because of these pop-up nurseries.
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  So they never have to be removed from the water, boated
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  somewhere else and put back in.
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  Like a stressor, like especially damaging for sponges if you
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  take it out of the water.
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  So they're actually in there.
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  Like, they're actually in the site.
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  They're in the ocean where they are, which I think is pretty cool.
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  Now, they're semi-temporary.
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  They need regulatory approval is granted, you know, for five years to start, and
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  they're extendable of course with the explicit long-term goal of not needing a
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  nursery, there once the reef stabilizes.
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  So the goal is to build it up so much that they don't need it after.
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  I think that's pretty cool.
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  And like ICARE's per dive fee has been running for years, and since
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  before the very first coral was even planted, a $2 add-on for every
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  $100 dive started with two shops and now running across three shops.
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  Nobody has ever objected to the $2, nobody.
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  'Cause it's minimal and you're a diver, you care about the ocean.
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  That's what's the best part of it is.
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  You can say, "I-- not only did I dive, but I contributed to this happening."
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  Now, Mike personally donates 2% of all of his own dive revenue on top
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  of the $2 that everybody pays per dive, per hundred dollar dive, which
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  he uses deliberately to signal to customers that he has skin in the game.
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  He's candid about this being a meaningful amount of his own retirement savings.
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  He puts this in because he cares.
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  It's not just about business to him.
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  It's not just about continuing his business.
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  This is bigger than that.
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  He wants to restore this reef.
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  He wants the next generation of divers, not only divers, but
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  people, to benefit from the reef.
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  So local divers that participate in ICARE's coral law plans pay an additional
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  dollar as a kind of, like, user fee, not free participation, which is kinda cool.
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  Like ICARE, you know, has a fiduciary responsibility to everyone that's
• 12:41
  a participant at any level, whether it's $2 or a large donation.
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  There is a thing that he does to make sure that everybody knows what's
• 12:50
  happening with the reef, and we're gonna talk about that in tomorrow's episode.
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  We're gonna dive into that a little bit more.
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  Now, one of the thing that Mike kinda bragged about and he's gonna brag
• 13:00
  about, which I think is kinda cool, is he says that The Key Dives, his, dive
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  shop, was voted number one in North America across all seven categories in
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  Scuba Diving's magazine's reader poll for 2025, and he expects hopefully
• 13:11
  to get the same result in 2026.
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  It's gonna be announced in the first week of September, which is this week.
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  I believe it'll be this week when you're hearing this.
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  So I think that's kinda cool to see that people are enjoying this because he cares.
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  He cares about the reef.
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  It's not just about scuba diving to him.
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  He cares about the reef, and I think that's important.
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  And he, like an award for him for this is it's like tying a business
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  case directly back to conversation.
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  Like, the more people that come here, the more he gets to donate.
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  2% of his funds go towards the reef.
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  So it's bigger than just diving.
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  It's bigger than just a business.
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  This is a guy who has a business in the Keys.
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  He cares about the Keys, and he cares about the reef, and he wants to see
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  the reef, wall-to-wall reef again.
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  So like when you look at this episode, what we cover is like cutting a fragment
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  off a healthy coral, it doesn't hurt it because it could become a coral colony.
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  And it really is thousands of genetically identical animals, not a single organism,
• 14:03
  like the way a fish or a mammal is.
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  Coral restoration nurseries are really just deliberately organized versions of
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  something that already happens naturally when a storm breaks a coral apart.
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  So the innovation is doing it on purpose, at scale, with a plan
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  for each fragment that it ends up.
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  That ends up being a coral.
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  And like the most labor-intensive part of coral restoration is
• 14:22
  offshore nursery maintenance.
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  He's got that solved, like, with a business idea, not a science
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  one, making something paying customers want to do anyway.
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  And the funding model for Icare isn't a big ask.
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  It's very small, mandatory, low-friction fees layered together.
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  And then it also, Mike puts on 2% as well to say, "Hey, look, you're putting in
• 14:40
  $2, I'm putting in 2% of my revenue." So a conservation program can double
• 14:45
  as a competitive business advantage.
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  Key Dives' award recognition and its restoration work are, in
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  Mike's own framing, the same story.
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  It's not just about diving, it's about taking care of the reef.
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  I'm gonna ask Mike to walk you through exactly how that $2 add-on like adds up
• 14:59
  over the years, and whether he's ever had a customer who actually says no to it.
• 15:03
  And you're gonna hear that on Friday.
• 15:04
  It's a great episode.
• 15:05
  I want you to hit that follow button to be able to listen to it because it's
• 15:09
  something that I just love when we have somebody like Mike on who's so dedicated.
• 15:13
  It's just amazing.
• 15:14
  I only have to start doing these interviews on Monday instead of Friday,
• 15:17
  like publishing on Monday, and then we can just debrief afterwards Tuesday to Friday.
• 15:20
  But we'll have to maybe change that up next week.
• 15:22
  Who knows?
• 15:22
  But anyway, that's it for today's episode.
• 15:24
  I wanna thank you so much for joining.
• 15:25
  You learned a lot about coral restoration and about the corals, the animal itself.
• 15:29
  Love to hear what you think.
• 15:30
  If you're on Spotify, leave me a comment.
• 15:32
  If you wanna just give me a DM on Instagram or TikTok or Facebook,
• 15:35
  please feel free to do so.
• 15:36
  Or LinkedIn, of course, I'm on LinkedIn.
• 15:37
  All the links are in the show notes, and, uh, I wanna thank you so much
• 15:41
  for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
• 15:44
  Have a great day.
• 15:45
  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.