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A staghorn coral is nurtured in a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) coral nursery before being transplanted back into the ocean. NOAACoral reefs are vanishing faster than they can regenerate due to a combination of pollution, overfishing, and the rising ocean temperatures linked to climate change. Coral Vita, a coral farming and restoration organization in Freeport, Grand Bahama, reports that over 30 percent of the world’s reefs have died in recent decades, with predictions that 75 percent of the remaining reefs will perish by 2050.
Coral reefs offer vital habitats for marine life, supporting biodiversity and providing a food source for humans. They also create jobs in sectors like tourism (including snorkeling and scuba diving) and fishing, while shielding coastlines from erosion and storm damage. The reef ecosystem is a valuable source for medical research, contributing to innovations like painkillers and bone grafting techniques.
As coral reefs worldwide continue to decline, coral farming emerges as a potential solution. This practice involves collecting coral fragments from the ocean, cultivating them in aquariums, and later returning them to their natural habitats. Coral farms, which can be set up at low cost, offer controlled growing conditions that promote faster coral growth. Some farms are located in the ocean, reducing operational costs, while others are land-based, enabling scientists to work under ideal conditions to better understand how to prevent coral decay and loss.
The Florida-based Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium discovered that coral grows faster when it is fragmented, thanks to its natural response to injury. Dr. David Vaughn, the lab's director, accidentally developed this quick-growing technique in 2006 when some coral broke in a tank. However, it wasn’t until 2011 that he began using the method on a larger scale. While coral fragmentation has been practiced since at least the 1960s, experts consider Mote’s approach the most promising for mass-producing reef-building corals to help restore damaged reefs.
Depending on the coral species, fragments are cultivated on tree-like structures made from PVC pipes or cement and plaster frames. Using a wet saw, the coral is cut into small 1-centimeter (0.4-inch) cubes in a process known as "microfragmenting." Some microfragmented corals undergo additional growth before being transplanted, while others are transplanted in groups, where they eventually merge together.
The Mote team experiments with various temperatures and acidity levels in their tanks to breed coral more resilient to warmer waters and higher acidity levels in the ocean. Before transplanting, they allow the coral to lose its color for 30 days to avoid attracting overly aggressive fish. The coral is then affixed to existing coral with epoxy, and the team monitors the new growth as it begins to develop.
In a similar initiative, researchers from the University of California, Davis, and Mars Symbioscience, reported in the September 28, 2018, issue of ScienceDaily, conducted a coral restoration project in Indonesia from 2013 to 2015. The team added small hexagonal structures to a reef to support new coral fragments, aiming to stimulate fusion and new growth. This method resulted in a 60 percent increase in live coral, with a cost of about $25 per square meter, or roughly 11 square feet.
While coral restoration techniques have shown promise, it's crucial to recognize that lab-grown coral is merely a temporary solution. Researchers warn that it doesn’t address the root causes of coral decline due to global warming, but rather buys valuable time since coral can't naturally regenerate fast enough. A piece of coral the size of a cupcake would typically take two years to grow, but with this method, it matures in about four months. In the wild, coral takes between 25 and 75 years to reach sexual maturity, but lab-grown methods can shorten this period to just three years. The specific growth rate depends on the coral species.
