Guardian of the reef

Coral conservationist Huang Wen and his team spearhead efforts to restore and protect coral ecosystems off the coast of Weizhou Island in South China.

At nine in the morning, Huang Wen begins his day by diving from a ship into the waters off Weizhou Island in Beihai city, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. There, he carefully attaches broken coral branches to seedbeds as part of his daily routine for coral reef restoration.

As a 36-year-old associate professor at the School of Marine Sciences at Guangxi University, Huang has been leading coral reef restoration efforts on Weizhou Island for nine years.

Under his guidance, the team has so far successfully propagated more than 10 coral species and over 50,000 individual corals, marking significant progress in their restoration work.

Huang earned his doctorate at the Institute of Oceanography under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, specializing in aquaculture and molecular biology techniques. "I knew nothing about coral reefs before taking this job, but once you start something, you must strive for results," he said.