One of our major goals this year is to build a the first biobank and marine biology lab on the mainland of Honduras. Last year, through generous donations, we secured the perfect land on which to build this facility. We are so thrilled that funding from the Stanley Creator’s Fund and the funds we are raising from our partnership with Chad Cannon: Music for the Ocean, we have been able to make progress on the facility itself.

Acquiring the land is the first step, but clearing and preparing it to build the biobank required both time and money. Simultaneously, we recognized the urgency to protect some of the more susceptible species of coral that still thrive in Tela Bay as fast as possible.

There’s a disease called Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, or SCTLD, that emerged near Miami and has been sweeping through the Caribbean since 2014. It arrived in Honduras’ Bay Islands a couple years ago, and this year, we believe we spotted it in Tela. The disease affects about 22 species of maze, boulder, and brain corals. Scientists have been collecting specimens in front of the disease front and putting them in biobanks to secure the animals and their genetic information.

Tela is home to most of the species susceptible to SCTLD, and while we didn’t have capacity yet to collect all of them, we decided to focus on one of the most susceptible genera: Meandrina. Worried about the impacts of the disease on Tela’s coral populations, this summer we collected and are holding as many maze corals as our capacity allowed. They are located in Phase 1 of the biobank, which for the moment is located at the Tela Marine aquarium where tanks and filtration systems were already available.

Meanwhile, we have ordered a suite of 12 tanks for Phase 2 of the biobank, which will be located on the land that we acquired. Those fiberglass tanks are currently being manufactured in Guatemala, and we just got a photo from the factory. We can’t wait for them to arrive! Stay tuned for more on the biobank buildout this year!