November 26, 2010 at 8:00 pm local time a transmission of extraordinary images has taken place directly between the National Museum of Natural History and Noumea. The monitoring of the coral spawning was initiated as part of a project on the Protected Marine Areas of New Caledonia. This project contributed to consolidate the information on spawning of the most threatened coral species, and to highlight the New Caledonian coral reef. The project is part of the efforts of protecting and recovering of this ecosystem, since its listing in 2008 on the World Heritage List of UNESCO.
The coral spawning in New Caledonia is an incomparable phenomenon, but little known: the majority of coral species do not reproduce but a few days a year, and only under certain conditions of water temperature, tidal coefficient and phase of the moon ... The images sent from New Caledonia were designed to make new discoveries on this phenomenon, and were captured by divers. This was the starting point for exchanges between Paris and Noumea.
This event would lead certainly to education projects in collaboration with the Earth Science Teachers Association of New Caledonia.
