Every coral in our aquariums did not ‘come from’ a fish store, they did not originate at an exporter, their journey began much, much further away. Every Acro, Chalice, Monti or Soft Coral came from a tropical, equatorial country most likely one from the infamous Coral Triangle.
We once got a lot of corals from Bali and we still get a lot of fish from the Philippines but the other country defining the third corner of this hot spot of reef biodiversity is the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands is also the birthplace of coral farming giving rise to many of the iconic coral strains we now overlook or even in some cases have forgotten about.
We are no stranger to this country of many scattered tropical islands and its rich and diverse reefs but it’s been a while since we visited one of the original coral-exporting countries. Over the last two weeks we traveled through several provinces of the Solomons with a range of different goals, including the capture of a whole lot of videos so you can see for yourself what the Solomon Islands are like.
Enjoy this preview of our coral reef diving as we catch up with the jet lag, get back in the swing of things and start cranking out even more original and eye-opening content for you. To know where you came from is to truly know yourself and we feel the same way about corals – the story of where our corals came from and the people who live there enriches our experience of creating and caring for reef tanks and we hope this mini series on the Solomon Islands will impart some of that feeling on you.
