Scientists find new way to restore the Great Barrier Reef 

Coral reef, such as the Great Barrier Reef (largest coral reef system in the world) of Australia, is one of the most significant aspects of the marine biodiversity. However, due to climate change and warming of the ocean, much of world’s coral reefs have been destroyed, while the remaining are also under the threat of extinction because of global warming, marine pollution and above all bleaching (coral expelling of photosynthetic algae, that is often irreversible).  

Taking this into account, marine biologists based at University of Technology, Sydney in association with five tourism companies have launched a new project to preserve the coral reefs, especially the Great Barrier Reef. The new project is titled ‘coral gardening’.  

Wondering what exactly is this project? Here is how it works. Sea divers recruited by companies are instructed to scour the ocean floor and collect broken and damaged pieces of corals. In turn, they are asked to attach these to submerged frames on which the fragments can regrow and recover. It’s almost like making artificial underwater coral nurseries. Once fully formed, these nurseries will be ready for sustainable tourism.  

Currently, as many as 30 gardens are being cultivated. While some of them will be retained in the artificial underwater nurseries, some of the healthy regrown coral segments will be transplanted to injured areas of the Great Barrier Reef.  

One of the most popular ‘coral gardening’ initiative is called Coral Nurture Programme that is focussed on the Queensland coastline and is run by Reef Restoration Foundation. They had already worked along the Fiji regions, the success of which was highlighted during the recent Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt. In fact, as part of this year’s COP27, all coral nations have pledged together to find more such effective conservation methods in the future and keep coral nurseries up and running.  

While the adverse effects of global warming and bleaching can’t be reversed, WWF’s (World Wildlife Foundation) Global Coral Reef Initiative is hopeful that coral gardening technique will restore at least 10 per cent of the coral reefs.  

Now, here’s a sneak peek into what’s happening in the coral ecosystem. There are tens of billions of living algae inside billions of coral polyps. Now, these algae not only provide food for their hosts through photosynthesis but also offer them protection by secreting calcium carbonate that acts as coral hard covering. Cutting a long story short, this is how coral polyps have grown and survived for more than 20,000 years. However, what’s happening now is that these algae are unable to thrive in overheated ocean water and in turn end up ejecting toxic substance instead of food. This not only destroys the polyps but also the ocean water. The consequence, as you can guess, is coral bleaching. So, unless the water temperature drops and the algae can survive, the corals won’t make it and the reefs will disappear.  

Okay, so what does this mean? This means that no amount of continued coral gardening and setting up artificial coral nurseries will be enough, unless climate is controlled. But the good news is, such conservation efforts raise public awareness which, in turn, leads to fund generation for such projects. For instance, in last four years, as many as 77,000 corals have been planted by Coral Nature Programme along Florida to Maine, thanks to the interest of locals and tourists. While this wouldn’t make much of a difference, it is still being deemed as a start!