Coral Diver Course

OCEAN GARDENER

The Ocean Gardener, Coral Diver Course, is designed specifically for scuba divers to learn the fundamentals of coral identification. This course covers the foundation of coral biology, before diving in to characteristics and important terms which help you to identify common corals.

Growth Forms

The easiest way to start recognizing corals is by looking at their growth forms! Learn to spot plating corals, branching, meandering brain, massive, and solitary corals.

Small Polyp Corals

Corals are made of tiny animals calls polyps, but not all polyps are created equal. Some are hardly visible to the human eye and are only a few millemeters wide.

Hard and Soft

Did you know you can tell hard and soft corals apart by counting the number of tentacles? Soft corals are easy to spots because you can count eight tentacles.

Large Polyp Corals

Some corals have large polyps over a few millimeters. The biggest coral polyp can got to be over 30 cm in diameter! Large polyp corals have soft flessy tissue and grow slow.

Restoration

Visit one of the Ocean Gardener coral farm and learn different techniques for coral restoration. Each of our partner locations implements various technique with a wide variety of coral species.

Soft Corals

Soft corals are made of a jelly like substance called mesoglea and have ridges bone like structures called sclerites which help give the coral structure. Soft corals product chemicals to deter pests.

OCEAN GARDENER