The University of Technology Sydney’s Coral Nurture Program is a science-led, industry-supported reef restoration initiative working to restore high-value sites across the Great Barrier Reef. In partnership with Wavelength Reef Cruises and other tourism operators, researchers, Traditional Owners and local communities, the program combines coral propagation, outplanting and long-term monitoring to enhance biodiversity, coral cover and ecosystem resilience.

The program cultivates coral fragments in underwater nurseries and replants them onto degraded reefs, supported by rigorous scientific methods including species selection, genetic diversity considerations, coral phenotyping for heat tolerance and adaptive monitoring. Innovations such as Coralclip® have helped improve efficiency, survival rates and scalability.

By embedding restoration into tourism operations, the Coral Nurture Program demonstrates how conservation, science, community stewardship and reef-based livelihoods can reinforce one another. With more than 133,000 corals planted across 119 species, the program provides a scalable model for achieving nature-positive outcomes while supporting climate resilience, education and global reef restoration practice.