Facing the worldwide coral degradation, active restorations are moving toward improving techniques to
maintain coral coverage. Transplant methods have been used to restore coral reef areas that were
completely degraded; however restoration is not commonly employed at coral reefs with evident loss
that may jeopardize the maintenance of the community. In this study the re-attachment concept using
the natural fragmentation of branched-corals was tested as an accelerator process to natural recovery
based on asexual reproduction. Survivorship, growth and attachment rates of three Pocillopora species on
both natural and artificial substrates were evaluated at four sites of Islas Marietas. Over one year of
monitoring during 2012e2013, resulted in a high survivorship of 87% on artificial underwater structures
and 67% on natural substrate, the height and radial growth, on both substrata increase 2-fold from the
initial size; although both substrata were viable, coral fragments attach faster on natural (4 months) than
artificial structures (6 months). The results demonstrate that re-attachment using natural substrata is a
potential and no invasive instrument for treating coral reefs not completely degraded in restoration
programs.