Pacific

New technique could turn the tide for dying corals

11:58 am on 22 January 2018

The developers of a new restoration method for corals are hoping it will help reverse the alarming rate at which coral reefs around the world are dying.

Photo: 123 RF

The founder of SECORE, an international coral reef conservation non-profit organisation, Dirk Petersen said in 2016 30 percent of coral in the Great Barrier Reef, off north-eastern Australia, died from coral bleaching.

Dr Petersen said with the rapid decline, existing technology for restoring coral was slow and labour intensive.

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However, he said the new method could pave the way for large-scale coral reef restoration.

"So we have developed a substrate that facilitates attachment on the reef without any manual handling and we will leave because of this. We will contribute to closing that gap from a little scale that a restoration currently operates towards much larger scales top address the decline of coral reefs."