I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity of traveling to Thailand to learn coral restoration techniques with my fellow Heirs and other people who care about our ocean. Overall it was a really great experience. Throughout Reef Ecologic’s course, I learned many new things that we could do in Palau and how to help preserve coral reefs around the world. 

I was so happy that we were able to first learn in the classroom and then be given the opportunity to actually do the work in the ocean. We learned different techniques on how to properly plant corals to help restore a reef.  We also learned to collect coral data including their health, their sizes, and how they are doing in their environment.  I learned that it’s really easy to do and that we could do this anywhere, but the only thing that’s preventing us to is the lack of resources. 

I think the best restoration technique that we could use in Palau would be the tray technique because we can easily install and maintain them and also monitor how the corals are doing, and we have the locations to do it. Overall I’m really thankful for this once-in-a-lifetime experience that was given to me, and no doubt I will forever cherish this memorable experience. And I will do everything that I can to help educate other people about all that I learned in this course and to help restore our beautiful ocean not just for us but also for future generations to enjoy.