New Coral Farm at Isla Academy: A Hands-On Hub for Coral Restoration in Sosúa

Located on the vibrant north coast of the Dominican Republic, Isla Academy is an innovative educational institution committed to experiential, place-based learning. By partnering with Global Coralition, the school has transformed part of its campus into a living laboratory for coral restoration — providing students, community members, and local scientists with the opportunity to engage directly in efforts to save the region’s reefs.

This coral farm will serve as both a production site for resilient corals and an educational center that inspires the next generation of ocean stewards.

Practicing Microfragmentation for Faster Reef Recovery

At the heart of this new coral farm is the microfragmentation technique — a cutting-edge method that allows corals to grow up to 25 times faster than they do naturally. In practice:

• Healthy parent colonies are carefully cut into tiny 1 cm² pieces using specialized tools.

• These microfragments are attached to ceramic or natural substrates in ocean or tank-based nurseries.

• As they heal, the fragments fuse together, quickly covering surfaces and forming mature, reef-building colonies in a fraction of the time.

This approach is especially effective for massive, slow-growing coral species like brain and star corals, which are key to rebuilding the structural complexity of reefs.

Reviving the Reefs Around Atabey

The primary goal of this coral farm is to supply healthy, fast-growing corals for outplanting around Atabey — our underwater sculpture and restoration site. Atabey was designed as both an artistic homage to the Arawak/Taino Mother of Water and as a haven for marine life. Through this farm, we aim to prove that we can accelerate coral growth rates thorough micro-fragmentation as an effective methodology for rebuilding reef ecosystems/