Caterina Fattori, a resident marine biologist at Outrigger Konotta Maldives Resort, is heading the resort’s collaboration with a local dive team and the German Museum of Oceanographic and Fisheries in an initiative called Outrigger Ozone, a program aimed at rebuilding and re-growing damaged coral reefs off the property’s island. In April 2015, the Maldives’ coral reefs started bleaching, thus turning into a ghost reef with pale and stressed corals. This was the latest phenomenon in a series of global warming and human related assaults such as the building of large structures on the beaches, the heavy fishing and the land-based pollution. The program, which began in June 2015, has been a joint collaboration by other resorts, such as the Wakatobi Dive Resort in Southeast Sulawesi, the Andaman in Malaysia, Alila Manggis in Bali and Taj Exotica in the Maldives; these ones share the common sentiment that, since beach and island resorts have contributed to erosion and environmental destruction as well, their action is extremely urgent. The coral restoration process is similar across all the resorts: broken but still-living coral fragments are attached to a frame, either metal or concrete, and the whole system is secured underwater. They believe that being good neighbors and showing that there is sustainability in tourism is a key point so as to protect the environment and its beauty for the future generations; it does not matter if it is a slow process, with care the reef will regenerate itself on the frames. The gLAWcal Team POREEN project Thursday, 2 March 2017 (source: The NewYork Times)