There’s a good article from the BBC about coral spawning, and some attempts to try seeding reefs that are not in good shape. The URL is http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7357121.stm.
There is a full moon on 20th April 2008, which is expected to trigger mass coral spawning in Palau. Perhaps we need to try and arrange future Palau dive trips to coincide with that. Researchers have been collecting coral and moving them to a controlled environment in the hope that they can capture the coral larvae that are released. When they are mature enough, the plan is to pump them over areas of colonisation. They will then be monitored and compared with control sites to see whether this helps to boost the number of corals over the long-term.
The techniques they are using are deliberately low tech, as the hope is that they can be applied easily and simply by developing countries. The eventual target is reefs which are under threat due to pollution or over-exploitation. First removing the threat and then seeding with coral larvae will hopefully give such reefs a chance of recovering. This is a first step to see if it is workable. Fingers crossed.
