Scubareefing
Scuba diving trip to Great Barrier Reef @ Australia.
How To Get Yourself Involved in the :
CORAL SPAWNING AND LARVAL CULTURING, programs/development projects Largest Coral Breeding / Restorations Projects @ Great Barrier Reef
- Fight Against And Be Of Resilience to Climate Changes And Global Warming
Corals reproduce through a mechanism known as coral spawning. In coral spawning, all of the corals from one species will release their eggs and sperm into the water over about 15 minutes, which rise to the water's surface and are fertilized.
This event, which usually happens just once a year for most corals, is one of the most amazing and miraculous events in all of nature. Not only is it amazing that corals can all time this event without having a brain or any means of communication, but this is also where the next generation of corals will come from.
Each coral larvae that settles successfully is called a coral recruit, and is a genetically distict individual. These recruits replenish the reefs with new individuals, and increase the reefs diversity and ability to adapt to changes.
What we are doing
In our Coral Spawning and Larval Culturing Program, we go out and observe document this event, and simultaneously collect the gametes (eggs and sperm) which are brought back to our nursery. From here, they develop as larvae for several days, then are settled onto artificial substrates, a sort of concrete mushroom.
We then take care of the juvenile corals for several years, until they are big enough to be transplanted to the natural reef or artificial reefs as part of our different restoration programs.
Most coral restoration programs focus on the asexual reproduction (cloning) of corals, but we are working on methods to increase the availability or using coral spawning capture and rearing to restore damaged reef areas with unqie, and possibly better adapted corals.
Why Coral Spawning
Did you know that Charles Darwin is actually attributed with being the world’s first coral restorationist? He discovered that a broken coral rolling around in the sand would usually die, but by securing that coral to a piece of bamboo driven into the sand it could be saved. In the 150 years since, coral restoration has not come that much further – the materials and techniques have evolved, but the concept is still mostly the same: securing broken pieces or corals so they can regrow.
#HowToGetYourselfInvolvedAndParticipateInCoralBreedingAndRestorationProjects #GreatBarrierReef #Australia
