October 22, 2019

A New Kind Of Coral Nursery

2 minutes

Coral reefs around the world are struggling from warming waters and increasing ocean acidification driven by excess carbon dioxide. Many of the world’s greatest reefs – such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – have seen steep declines over the past decade.

But apart from the global environmental threat, reefs also are often

damaged by various marine accidents such as ships grounding on them. Such events can severely damage a reef and

scatter countless small coral fragments onto the seafloor. These small pieces of coral are not actually

dead; they can continue on with their lives if they are relocated to a suitable

environment such as a coral nursery.

Coral nurseries are generally small installations that allow coral

fragments – typically pieces about 4 inches in length – to recover from their

reef breaking up and to grow until they are large enough for conservation

managers to replant them into reefs that need them. This strategy works well in places where

corals grow relatively quickly – such as Florida and the Caribbean – but not as

well in places where coral grows more slowly, such as Hawaii.

Recently, coral experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration working with mechanical engineering students at the University

of Hawaii have developed a new type of coral nursery that can save fully formed

coral colonies as opposed to small coral fragments.

The nurseries are large, carefully designed structures that can be

loaded up with corals that have become detached from their reefs. Some of these new structures were installed

in the waters of Oahu in the summer of 2018 and were populated with

corals. The relocated corals, which would

have otherwise died, are now recovering nicely in their new coral daycare

centers and will soon be replanted back into the reef.

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Web Links

NOAA Develops A New Type of Coral Nursery

Photo, posted July 29, 2010, courtesy of Kyle Taylor via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

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By Randy Simon

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