Sharjah 24 – Reuters: Australian researchers said that coral populations from their first "Coral IVF" trial on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 have not only survived recent bleaching events, but are on track to reproduce and spawn next year.
Coral populations along Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have received a boost thanks to a pioneering "Coral IVF" trial that’s on track to reproduce and spawn next year, researchers say.
Southern Cross University’s Peter Harrison headed up the study, which took place off of Australia's East coast.
"I'm really excited. We've just been over to the site in Heron Island lagoon, where we put larvae onto certain parts of the reef in 2016. And we've found a lot of very large corals that have grown from those larvae. So this proves that the larvae restoration technique works just as we predicted and we can grow very large corals from tiny microscopic larvae within just a few years."
The tactic was first used in 2016, where more than 60 corals are now on the way to being the first re-established on the reef through Coral IVF.
The new corals varied in diameter, ranging from around an inch to the size of a dinner plate, and were healthy.
Tests show them to be healthy, despite a severe bleaching event that hit Heron Island in March.
Bleaching occurs when hotter water destroys the algae, which corals feed on, causing them to turn white.
A recent study from James Cook University found the reef had lost more than half of its coral in the past three decades and raised concern that it is less able to recover from mass bleaching events.
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