In the Maldives, a mobile coral spawning system has been trialed with scintillating success, as 10,000 juvenile corals were grown by local operators.
It represents not only a major hope that island nations can abate the loss of coral reefs, but also that the spawning system’s $1.5 million grant investment was well-spent, and that an expansion in production of the technology could well be warranted.
Co-developed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and Maldives Marine Research Institute (MMRI), ReefSeed is a shipping container-sized, portable, seaside spawning laboratory for coral.
Designed to allow local marine scientists anywhere in the world to spawn and grow coral for reef restoration in weeks rather than months, and to operate without external power sources or the need for divers, ReefSeed received $1.5 million from the G20 Coral research and Development Accelerator Program.
It passed its recent acid test with flying colors, as the MMRI were able to use a single containerized ReefSeed unit to spawn 3 million larvae during a single spawning season, which they turned into 10,000 juvenile corals.
These corals were then deployed via 720 seeding devices across 9 different reefs. It was done without any of the AIMS experts present, proving its utility doesn’t require expertise in the system.
The spawning took place on Maniyafushi island in the South Malé Atoll of the Maldives, and AIMS coral reproduction scientist and ReefSeed co-lead, Dr. Muhammad Azmi Abdul Wahab, said the plan was to offer ReefSeed to as many other island communities as possible.
“We have learned much from working with colleagues at MMRI, which will help us make improvements in the training and refinements in the way the system itself can work,” Dr. Wahab told Oceanographic.
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“Coral reefs in the Maldives sustain communities and livelihoods but, like coral reefs globally, they have been impacted by bleaching driven by climate change. Innovations like ReefSeed can play a role in supporting restoration efforts providing hope for these communities.”
MMRI scientists were invited to the Great Barrier Reef to witness, alongside their AIMS colleagues, the autumn spawning season on the world’s largest reef, something which GNN has reported before has to be seen to be believed—like the shaking of a giant snowglobe.
It was there they learned the fundamentals of coral spawning that they would take back to Maniyafushi island and their ReefSeed station.
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