Our Mission

CultivatePreserve

Our marine sanctuary is committed to cultivating awareness, responsibility, and connection, so we can enjoy the coral reefs, the oceans, and the island we call home far into the future.

We grow coral in protected nurseries, we study what endures a warming sea, and we bring scientists, students, and supporters together around a single reef.

Our Story

Our Process

Restore

Grow & outplant coral

We propagate heat-resilient fragments in protected nurseries and return them to degraded reef structures, fragment by fragment.

Our method
Learn

Educate the next stewards

School visits, volunteer days, and a dive program that turn visitors into lifelong reef advocates.

Programs
Research

Find what endures

With regional marine institutions we identify and propagate coral genotypes that survive sustained warm-water events.

The research

Timeline

2018

First nursery seeded

Twelve rescued fragments hung on a single tree at La Isla Zulueta.

2020

Registered 501(c)(3)

Formalized as a US nonprofit and a recognized civil association in the Philippines.

2022

Adopt-a-coral launches

Public adoption program opens, funding year-round outplanting.

2024

42,000 corals in the water

Three reef sites, three new No-Take Zones, a 22% growth in cover.

42k Corals grown in the reef
12k Fragments outplanted in 2024
3 New No-Take Zones
22% Increase in marine growth

In the Field

La Isla Zulueta coral nursery
La Isla Zulueta nursery, March 2025

Growing coral underwater

Our underwater nurseries are seeded with fragments rescued from storm damage and selected for heat resilience. We grow them on tree structures suspended in the water column, where they triple in size within 12 months before outplanting.

See the method

Sand-line transect at Tapiutan Reef
Sand-line transect, Tapiutan Reef

Heat-tolerant genotypes

In partnership with regional research institutions, we identify and propagate coral genotypes that survive sustained warm-water events, from field collection through laboratory thermal stress to outplant.

Read the research

Local crew on La Isla Zulueta
Local crew, La Isla Zulueta

A thriving community

Ensuring the nearby community can continue to thrive by providing diverse livelihoods, from dive guiding and nursery work to reef monitoring and hospitality, so stewardship and local prosperity grow together.

Meet the community

Help us cultivate a thriving future

Stand with the sanctuary. Your support helps us protect and restore the reef, the ocean, and the island we call home. (We promise not to be boring.)