What does it take for coral to get airborne these days? Growing and selling farm raised coral is quite an involved process. To ensure a swift and safe delivery of the fragile cargo we have to follow a strict protocol when preparing our shipments. This process starts months before we even put our scuba gear on and collect the coral from our ocean based farm. In order to follow international and Indonesian government guidelines, we have to document our coral farming operations in great detail. There has to be a documented chain of origin from the mother coral to the growing process, harvesting, packing and shipping. Each step has to be documented with timestamped photos and GPS coordinates to show a chain of custody, that makes it virtually impossible to ship coral specimen not originated in a sustainable aquaculture operation. Each step of the way there are controls by officials of the department of agriculture the ministry of fisheries and others who have jurisdiction in the matter. The challenge of this is that we have to complete all these steps of documenting our shipments in real time while preparing and packing the cargo. Coral is packed depending on the species with some fresh seawater and our special blend of gas. It exact composition is a tightly protected trade secret. After decades of experience with the shipments we have fine tuned the process to a science. Our shipment department is composed of highly skilled experts in the field of marine aquaculture. Only the best and healthy coral specimen will be selected in the packing process. First we select the coral based of health and size and its even appearance during our farm harvest. Then the coral gets transported to our holding and observation tanks in our shipping facility. Here we monitor the coral for an average 48 hour period to make sure we only select the healthiest example for the long journey. If the coral shows sign of distress it will be brought back to our ocean based farming tables. Packing coral is time consuming and it has to be completed within a very short time window. Our packing facility is close to the Denpasar international airport so it helps us to avoid delays in getting our precious cargo airborne. Some oceandwellers are less likely to find themselves in the clouds. It takes a skilled ground crew to get them on their way. We at Bali Blue Star Coral Farm say once more “All aboard” before the cargo hold closes and takes the wonders of the ocean to new heights.