Coral at the kitchen table: The extraordinary ordinary life of Kate and Jamie Craggs

In Jamie and Kate Craggs’ family kitchen is an aquarium and, arguably, the focal point of the house, attracting everyone who visits – especially friends of their teenaged sons, who never fail to spot a new addition to the tank. And it’s practically a gift to anyone wishing to tell the story of a growing and changing family with a shared passion for the sea running through their veins.

But let’s not get carried away.

Because while it looks like an aquarium and, yes, it’s filled with fish, it’s really a coral spawning laboratory. “We’ve actually spawned sixteen species in there – three of which were new to science,” smiles Jamie. Experiments in the sexual reproduction of coral next to the fridge might seem a little… unconventional, but in the world of marine scientist Jamie, his wife, Kate, and their children, replicating the conditions of the ocean inside their home feels like the most normal thing in the world.

From the moment they met, the sea loomed large in Kate and Jamie’s lives, although in very different ways. Kate’s North London upbringing meant that she was at least 60 kilometres from the coast, while Jamie grew up in Brightlingsea in Essex. His childhood was spent swimming, sailing and windsurfing in the often-freezing temperatures of the Atlantic. “So, everyone assumes that Jamie introduced me to the water,” says Kate. “But I learnt to dive in Australia before we met and loved it. I mean, I literally fell in love with it.” After this five day ‘live aboard’ trip to the outer barrier reef, the ocean had her. “Whereas all of my diving training was in the UK, in freezing cold and murky brick pits,” laughs Jamie. “I’ve still never been to Australia – and part of my PhD was focusing on corals from the Great Barrier Reef. So, Kate's got way more experience than I have!”

They met through a mutual friend, who was determined for Kate to accompany her on a weekend to Brightlingsea and, he recalls, “it was love at first sight”. After dating for just a matter of months, they moved in together, but the path of love rarely runs smooth, and it wasn’t long before Jamie was offered an incredible opportunity to work as an undersea camera operator. In Borneo. “It was the most amazing thing,” remembers Kate. “I didn't want to stop him from going, but he didn't want to be without me either. So, I quit my job.”

They say that the planets have a habit of aligning when something is meant to be, but while they shift into position, it can be tough to see what’s to come. This was certainly the case for Jamie and Kate when they returned from their travels and settled back into life in the UK. Just as their first son arrived into the world, Jamie took up a role as Principal Aquarium Curator at the Horniman Museum & Gardens in London, kickstarting his work with coral regeneration. Their second son was born two years later and Kate, who had worked in the busy world of events and project management, found herself thinking long and hard about her future.

“My head and my heart were saying two different things. I wanted to be around for our kids, but I needed to earn and I wanted to do something for me too.” She often found herself proofreading and editing for a dyslexic colleague, so had business cards printed, took a deep breath and headed out to publishers’ fairs to offer her services as a freelance copyeditor. At the same time Jamie, who is also dyslexic, was working on his PhD, ‘Inducing broadcast coral spawning ex situ: Closed system mesocosm design and husbandry protocol’, so Kate reviewed everything he ever wrote. “I read his thesis, cover to cover, more than once,” she says. “It taught me about his world and work – a lot more about his work.”

When Jamie’s big breakthrough happened – making corals spawn on demand – the couple don’t mind admitting that it was a tough time for their young family. With two small children and Jamie routinely keeping ‘coral hours’ – working all day and living at the whims of evening coral spawning cycles – Kate was hard at work at home while he did 18-hour shifts. “He was basically replicating spawning on the reef, so nine or ten o'clock at night,” explains Kate. “I don't think anyone realised how much it kept him away from home. It was a sacrifice.” The turning point came when he finally tricked the corals into daytime spawning.

As transformative moments go, it’s an unusual one. And it meant everything to the Craggs family. They not only had Jamie back during daylight hours, but his incredible reputation in the field took them all over the world to examine reefs. And their boys, born adventurers who also love diving, went with them. As the coral aligned perfectly, so finally did the planets – Kate’s professional experience, plus her dive master experience and as editor of Jamie’s PhD, exactly fitting with the needs of Coral Spawning International. Today, she is even training to be a coral restoration practitioner.

It’s clear that time has flown for them, in the way that it has a habit of doing when you are raising children, and life shows no sign of slowing down. As well as the Canon, Nature Seychelles and Coral Spawning International partnership, Jamie is still working with the Horniman. “Sleep is in short supply at times,” he laughs. “It's a bit of a juggle.” And everyday life continues – supporting elderly parents, walking dogs, cooking – but the future is an exciting place. “The restoration work with Nature Seychelles is going to be amazing,” adds Kate. “And we would love our boys to be involved in that too.”

So, perhaps there is a visual metaphor to be found here, after all. Because, like their aquarium, at first glance the Craggs family seem to be like any other. But just a short time in their company reveals that they too are quite extraordinary indeed.

Learn more about our partnership with Coral Spawning International and Nature Seychelles.