by Duncan Lister, Yorkshire Reefs
Coral reefs are extremely important ecosystems, housing 25% of all marine life in less than 1% of the ocean’s floor. They are under immense risk from climate change, overfishing and pollution, yet as coral reef aquariums grow in popularity, the demand for corals collected from these fragile ecosystems has never been higher.
Here at Yorkshire Reefs, we are constantly looking for ways to ensure the corals and fish you buy are sustainable and ethical. We want to support you to have a beautiful aquarium, while also preserving our amazing coral reefs. Our corals are sourced from industry-leading suppliers, with the majority being farmed in Indonesia specifically for our industry and to aid in coral reef restoration. This helps us to maintain quality while avoiding damage to wild reefs. Next year we are aiming to go even further in our sustainability mission, by building a state-of-the-art coral farm here in the heart of North Yorkshire.
The Yorkshire Reefs coral farm will mimic key aspects of a tropical coral reef, from intense sunlight and water circulation to the control of water chemistry and nutrients. We will select small numbers of the highest quality corals from around the world to propagate and grow-on for sale in our shop. This will allow us to give you access to stunning corals sustainably, and will further reduce the demand for wild collection.
We are also working closely with Project Coral, based at the Horniman Museum in London, who are pioneering research into developing techniques to stimulate coral reproduction in captivity. Using our specially developed underwater ultrasound scanner, as seen on BBC One’s Our Changing Planet, we hope to be able to better predict when corals are likely to spawn.
If you are interested in reef aquariums, or would like to learn more about how we grow our corals, please visit us at our showroom at Malton Enterprise Park.
Yorkshire Reefs, Unit 3 (Red Zone), 9 Cherry Farm Close, Malton Enterprise Park, Malton, YO17 6AH
Tel: 01653 531166
Facebook/Instagram @YorkshireReefs
Opening Times: Tuesday – Friday 9.30 – 5, Saturday 10 – 5, Sunday 1.30 – 4