Coral reefs are one of the world's most amazing ecosystems.
They harbour an amazing 25 percent of marine life, but this ecosystem
is very fragile.
We know what the problem is, it's not like we're losing coral and we
don't understand why. We know what the problem is and actually we have
the solutions we just now need to implement them.
Myself and two colleagues established the
Coral Nurture Program to ensure reef resilience to future change.
This is a first for the Great Barrier Reef.
Coral reefs are amazing.
They are biodiverse, full of life and colour, and have so many
important services that not only marine life but also us as humans
rely on.
My work is looking at naturally tolerant corals on the
Great Barrier Reef to try and buy time for coral reefs that are
under threat.
This takes me actually into some quite surprising places.
This includes Mangrove lagoons on the Great Barrier Reef.
People typically don't look there for corals because they're full of
jellyfish and crocodiles.
But actually, that's really important because these conditions
are so hostile that actually if we can find coral surviving in these
conditions where the water is actually warmer, more acidic and
has low oxygen conditions like what we predict with climate
change, we can study these corals to understand how they've adapted,
what the cost of that adaption is and how we may use those corals to
aid reef resilience and adaptation into the future.
These corals that are extra tough found in these Mangrove lagoons
have been called super corals.
But what is super? How tough is tough?
Also, we know that every superhero has its downfall and we need to
know what that is for super corals to ensure their future and how we
use them. From studying these mangrove corals, we can understand
what it is about them that allows them to survive there.
We can also look at these mangrove corals and see if we can move them
to new environments and actively restore degraded reefs.
Unfortunately, as reefs continue to degrade, we're seeing a greater
need to actually grow and plant corals onto the reef.
The Coral Nurture Program is a unique partnership between science
and tourism, and it's based on the idea of site stewardship.
Tour operators, who have the immense knowledge of their sites
and the infrastructure, to regularly visit these sites are now
able to grow corals that are found locally through what we call
fragments of opportunity.
Corals are really special because they reproduce sexually, but also
they actually naturally fragment and so they are asexually able
to also reproduce.
If we take those broken fragments that would typically just die and
actually put them onto metal frames, grow them in a nursery.
So the same as taking a plant clipping and growing that up.
We can do the same with corals in these nurseries, and then we can put
them back on the reef.
And by doing this we're boosting the resilience of the reef, by
getting more biomass out.
But also we have the infrastructure in place that when
we are able to and we feel that there is the need, we can put these
more tolerant corals from the mangroves into these nurseries to
grow them and put them out because we already know how to do it.
Through the Coral Nurture Program, we've been able to outplant over
30 000 corals today.
We're developing methods that ultimately we're hoping that
we won't need to use.
I'm definitely concerned about the future of our reefs, but I remain
optimistic because we still have corals that have amazing
biodiversity and that gives me hope that there's something worth
fighting for.
Many of the compounds we need for drugs are
actually found from organisms living in or on coral reefs.
If we lose the reef, all of that is lost.
Many coral reef scientists now fear that corals will not have time
to survive climate change without our intervention.
Unfortunately, I've actually witnessed the impact that coral
bleaching driven by climate change has had on reefs.
I was actually in the Seychelles during the 2016 bleaching event, and
saw areas of several football pitches in size of coral cover die overnight.
When you have loved something for so long and you're so
passionate about it, and, you know, it's not something that you just
study, something you generally feel so much love for and you see
it die and know that you can't do anything about that despite all
your efforts, and that you know that this isn't a one-off event and
that this is going to continue to happen to reefs around the world.
It's really hard and it's really tough to see.
Climate change is a really overwhelming topic for everybody
and definitely for me.
Sometimes it just feels like, you know, what can I as one person do
about it? But it is really true that if everybody has
that opinion, then nothing will change.
We have to remember that there are still coral reefs that are alive.
And for that reason, I have hope to continue the research
that I'm doing to try and ensure that those reefs don't suffer the
same demise as the ones that were lost.
I fell in love with reefs when I first got to snorkel with mum, when I was
around nine years old, I was really lucky.
And I just remember seeing the reef for the first time when I put
my mask on and looked under the water.
And the fact that there was this whole underwater world just
fascinated me. So I've always had that excitement and intrigue and
wonder. It doesn't matter how many times I go on the reef, every time
I still get those butterflies in my stomach and that excitement, and
I just feel a real privilege that I get to study and work in such an
amazing environment.
We are entirely connected with nature and, in turn, the reef.
We don't have to go to the mountains or go to the Great
Barrier Reef to be connected.
Every action, every decision we make has an impact on the
environment around us.
So no matter where you live, if you take positive steps to reduce
your carbon emission, this in turn will have a really positive effect
on reefs around the world.
We can actually look to coral as a great example of what an individual
can achieve because the coral reef is made up of initially one tiny polyp
that grows into a colony and then collects and reforms
that reef. And so we know, we really could take a lesson from
coral that each of us individually are connected and that if we work
together, we can have really large and positive impacts.