our first reef “El Castillo” is 3 years old!

September holds special significance for us, as it reminds us of our first reef-building adventure and the milestones we’ve achieved since then. On the 19th of September 2021, we finished building “El Castillo” using 228 specially designed bricks off the coast of San Andrés Island, Colombia.
For those who were not following us back then, we assembled our prototype in just 10 days, together with 11 workshop participants and the local NGO Corales de Paz and other stakeholders.

Since then, “El Castillo” has become a popular diving attraction and a valuable research site. Through biannual assessments and video footage provided by our partners, we monitor the structure’s stability, fish diversity, and coral health (look at the rrreefisode #2 to see how we monitor it). Just three months after completion, by December 2021, 38 species of fish were already living around our reef—nearly as many as in natural reefs. And over the past three years… many baby corals have naturally recruited and grown on the structure!

You might also remember, we’ve faced challenges as well. Tropical storms have slightly tilted the structure, and an extreme heatwave caused by the El Niño event severely affected some coral species, both on “El Castillo” and nearby natural reefs. 
These setbacks, along with our regular monitoring, have taught us invaluable lessons. We since then made our bricks stronger and larger, we could create a new surface pattern on them, and designed a new platform and anchoring system.
This pilot reef is special to us, and we will continue to monitor it over the years to still learn from it.