A Moonshot for Coral Breeding Was Successful

September 30, 2022 12:04 PM

The elkhorn coral is one of the most endangered corals in the Caribbean and the Florida Keys. In Florida alone, the population is reduced by over 95 percent. A coral breeding project using elkhorn coral gametes collected in Florida and Curaçao hopes to give this species a new lease on life.
posted by Etrigan (7 comments total)

Wow, what a fascinating project and how great to hear of its success so far! Thanks for posting!
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:23 PM on September 30, 2022 [3 favorites]

Agreed. Go Corals!
posted by Windopaene at 4:48 PM on September 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

Related, the Coral Gardeners in French Polynesia are doing some cool work repopulating damaged reefs. They have a lovely Instagram as well, which doesn’t hurt in getting funding these days.
posted by Bunglegirl at 8:31 PM on September 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

Fascinating. Great post!
posted by lazaruslong at 1:49 AM on October 1, 2022

I started a company with the intent of using the defunct MarineLand tanks to breed Red Sea hybrids in the 90s.

Back then we knew that FL reefs would probably not survive and that this would largely eliminate FL gamefish of any size

We just could not generate any interest. The sporting industry had ideological blinders re global warming. “Run a coral farm” wasn’t going to generate PhDs. Coral don’t vote.

Good for this team for sticking it out and finding deep pockets. That is quite an accomplishment in itself
posted by pdoege at 12:45 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

The aspiring ‘coral factory’ restoring reefs wrecked by climate change
posted by blue shadows at 1:25 PM on October 1, 2022

Thanks for the link Blue Shadows. ‘Micro fragmentation” was not known to me back in the day . We were going to use “ electrical reef ” to build and then “plant” corals off the FL and GA coasts.

Combining the two techniques with a high temp genotype might, possibly, allow for new growth reefs that can survive the increased temps expected later this century
posted by pdoege at 2:37 PM on October 1, 2022