Planting new corals can't stop climate change, but it can give marine ecosystems a fighting chance. Volunteers have largely led the ambitious effort.
When vibrant corals turn into white, lifeless shells, other reef inhabitants disappear — along with associated tourism and fishing industries. The value of reefs for ocean creatures and humans has motivated biologists, activists, nonprofits and evenand to try and build the corals back up again.
One of the most common tactics is the most straightforward: planting corals into a struggling reef. With these marine creatures, there are no roots to bury in the sea floor. Instead, restoration teams mimic the way corals stick to rocks, except they use glue, plastic ties or clips to fasten down the new additions.
As the tiny organisms that make up a piece of coral grow on their own, these jellyfish relatives essentially clone themselves. Ideally, a resilient coral community has genetic diversity, Hein explains, to prevent a situation where all the residents die off from a single threat, like a disease or a heat wave, that might roll through. That’s why some restoration tactics aim to make spawning — the mass release of eggs and sperm into the ocean — more successful.