It’s been more than two years since the luxury yacht, “Nakoa,” ran aground just outside the Honolua-Mokuleia Marine Life Conservation District in February 2023, causing emotional distress to the community and significantly damaging and destroying 119 living coral colonies.

On Monday, an eight-person team of six divers and two snorkelers from Maui Ocean Center and the nonprofit Marine Institute at Maui Ocean Center attached 246 rehabilitated coral fragments of four coral species to the reef in the bay.

“We feel it’s a privilege and honor to do this work on behalf of the community of Maui,” said MOCMI Executive Director Dustin Paradis in a release. “Honolua is a very special place for many reasons, and we hope this effort can provide some healing and closure for the community.”

MOCMI operates under a special activities permit with the Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources allowing the organization to collaborate with the state in mitigating incidents of coral damage.

After the yacht was removed from the reef in March 2023, two MOC coral specialists assisted MOCMI staff and volunteers to collect damaged coral colonies for rehabilitation.

MOC provides space and infrastructure critical to the work of MOCMI that includes rehabilitating coral reefs and helping injured sea turtles. Over the past 26 months, MOCMI staff and volunteers cared for the coral daily at the nonprofit’s Maalaea-based coral nursery that utilizes saltwater pumped from Maalaea Bay.

The damaged coral was eventually cut into small pieces and glued to aragonite plugs onto which they established themselves and eventually grew around. During the past month, the corals were placed under filtered outdoor sunlight to aid their transition back into the ocean.

According to Paradis, after a preliminary dive of the 36-foot-wide “outplanting zone,” two dive teams went underwater to attach the coral fragments onto the reef incorporating “safe and proven coral restoration methods.”

The corals were returned to an area next to the shallower area they were originally collected from, providing conditions for a better chance of survival.