22 Jan 2018

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.

no caption

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.

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."

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs