ABU DHABI: The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi has been rehabilitating and restoring corals since 2021, when reefs off the United Arab Emirates’ coast faced their second bleaching event in just five years.

The corals were once bleached. Now they’re big, healthy and ready to be moved back to their original reefs in the hope they’ll thrive once more.

“We try to grow them from very small fragments up to the size of my fist,” al-Jailani said, who’s part of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi’s coral restoration programme.

The nursery gives corals the ideal conditions to recover. Coral bleaching occurs when sea temperatures rise and sun glares flush out algae that give the corals their colour.