- Inside these tanks, a small group of scientists
are growing coral
and more resilient than in the wild—
but why?
I didn't grow up thinking I was gonna be a coral farmer,
but this is the world we're living in right now.
This one ecosystem
that takes up less than
sustains the livelihoods of up to one billion people
and 25% of Marine life.
But by 2050, less than 30 years away,
over 90% of the world's reefs are projected to die.
But, if we get this right,
there will be coral reefs for future generations.
- We're in Grand Bahama,
visiting the world's first commercial,
land-based coral farm for reef restoration.
- So we're in 'Array-A' of our farm,
and this is one of the sections
where we grow corals
for 6, 12, 24 months before we take 'em out
by boat out on the reefs
to start bringing those reefs back to life.
- Unlike traditional projects,
Coral Vita grows their corals on land,
and they do this for a few key reasons.
- Land-based coral farming basically allows us
to grow more diverse and resilient corals
more affordably and at scale.
So corals have a natural ability
to adapt to changing conditions,
but things are deteriorating in the ocean so quickly—
largely due to climate change—
that they can't keep up.
So what we're doing is acclimating the corals.
- By raising and lowering the temperature
of the water, the corals undergo stress.
- We basically take them to the gym.
- And in turn harden, which boosts their ability
to survive the planet's warming oceans.
- Corals also have an ability to make babies,
it's known as coral spawning.
So when it comes time for coral spawning,
we can then put those already more resilient corals together
so that their babies are also gonna be more resilient.
- This process is called 'assisted evolution.'
They can also dramatically speed up
a coral's growth rate.
- The method we rely on to accelerate coral growth rates
is known as 'microfragmenting,'
which is an open-source method
that basically allows us to grow corals
up to 50 times faster.
So, months instead of decades, in some cases.
Corals have a natural healing process—
so if you take one, individual coral
and you cut it up into these tiny, little microfragments,
and you put those microfragments
near each other,
it'll start fusing back into itself.
And eventually, you have these larger corals
from very important species
that often aren't grown in traditional projects.
This is already one of the fast-growing species,
but it's not only growing up and in multiple limbs,
but it's tissue and skeleton,
is actually growing over the plug;
as far as really accelerating
those growth rates even faster
for an endangered coral species is really exciting.
Over the course of
the corals grow in our raceway tanks
before they are then outplanted into the reefs.
We have unfortunately seen a lot of amazing efforts plateau
when it comes to ecosystem restoration
in large part due to funding.
- Most restoration projects are nonprofits
supported by grants and donations.
But Sam and the team at Coral Vita
are taking a different approach.
- So, actually right behind me,
my next-door neighbor is a hotel.
And there are people who come here
'cause they like to go snorkeling or scuba diving—
there's actually a few coral heads right off shore
near where those buoys are.
They're probably not gonna stay at this hotel
or any hotel if the reef is dead.
So, it's in the business interest
of all of these different resorts and property owners
to protect and restore these ecosystems
'cause it's a way that they can actually
attract more guests.
- Coral Vita is actually a for-profit company.
They sell restoration as a service
to paying customers like hotels, but also many others.
- Insurers or coastal property owners
who are protected by sort of the breakwaters
that reefs provide,
national governments, corporate sponsors,
international development agencies;
anyone who depends on or cares about reefs
can hire Coral Vita to restore them.
- So the plan this morning,
bring all of the corals and all the materials to the site,
do the outplant, and then we're good to go.
- When we first got going,
there was definitely people like,
"Why are you doing this as a for-profit?"
"You're gonna take this limited
grant funding away from us."
"Are you, you know, giving local people jobs?"
In many cases, fair questions.
So, we're off the south shore of Grand Bahama,
are estimated to be dead.
So we're doing outplants
in an area that's popular for fishing.
It's near some tourism sites.
I think we started to win over some people
once we were able to show that the profits are guided
towards funding more restoration work
and that if we're successful, hopefully, it actually means
there's gonna be a lot more funding available
for everyone.
Really all reefs need help at this point,
but not every reef can be restored, unfortunately.
Just 'cause someone wants to pay us to restore a reef
doesn't mean we're gonna do it.
If the water quality isn't good or they're not thinking about
managing things the right way,
that doesn't mean, "Great, we'll take money."
We have to do things in a responsible manner
to really make the impact required
to keep reefs alive for the future.
- Whoa, what's that down there?
It's like an orange thing.
- See his legs, he kinda looks like a spider.
So our daily bread and butter here at the farm,
are tours and money that's generated by ecotourism.
That's a conch, that's a Queen conch.
I don't think science makes much sense
unless people can actually understand it
and realize how it benefits them in their everyday lives.
Imagine if this healthy reef was as big as this farm,
that's so much biodiversity and so much value.
So this is what we're trying to replicate
when we're trying to regrow or rehabilitate our coral reefs.
I grew up in a mangrove creek system,
so I was surrounded by all sorts of Marine animals.
Watching it die in front of my eyes,
I don't wanna pass that on.
I want to give them exactly what I had as a child,
and even better.
- We launched our farm here in Grand Bahama in May 2019.
We had the full support of the government,
we were negotiating restoration as a service,
contracts with local customers.
We had local students coming through the farm
experiencing it as an education center.
On the ecological side,
we were growing two dozen species of native corals.
We had a successful coral spawning event.
Things were going great.
And then⁠—
and it got as high as those speakers.
- 'And we begin with the relentless threat
from Hurricane Dorian,
rapidly strengthening over the past 24 hours
to a monster, Category 5 storm.'
- A lot of great successes we were experiencing
were completely thrown underwater
and thrown up in the air.
- Hurricane Dorian was the strongest storm
to ever hit The Bahamas in recorded history.
- The storm stopped moving over Grand Bahama,
and it lasted for 48 hours.
- And over the course of two days,
it completely destroyed the island,
and undid everything that Coral Vita had worked for.
- We found some of our tanks in the bushes down here,
but for the most part we found the one
that washed away like
And it gave us an opportunity
to experience what the climate crisis
was like firsthand.
- Coral reefs, on average, reduce wave energy by 97%,
making them one of the most vital natural protectors
to coastlines against storms.
- Coral reefs slow down wave energy,
and we saw also firsthand how it saved people's lives,
but it also reaffirmed just why this work is so important
because those ecosystems take care of us.
We started thinking about what was next for Coral Vita.
We knew we were gonna keep doing the work.
There's over a hundred countries and territories
that need help when it comes to coral reef restoration.
Coral restoration is not a silver bullet,
and we can't guarantee that every coral's gonna survive.
But, we also are at this point
where we need to do this work,
we need to do it in a big way, in a different way.
After Dorian, what we ultimately decided
was to raise a new investment round
to transform this pilot into a state-of-the-art facility.
Our initial pump house was this size.
This is our new pump house.
Our farm currently has the capacity
to grow up to about 30,000 coral fragments per year.
Eventually, we wanna have this farm
and future farms grow hundred thousand,
if not millions of corals every year.
- Coral Vita alone
can't stop the effects of climate change.
They can only try to mitigate the damage to our reefs
as ocean temperatures continue to rise.
However, their story has the potential
to challenge global governments
and industry leaders to take the necessary action
to cut carbon emissions and slow ocean warming.
- So corals are actually animals.
So here is a coral, this coral is called an Elkhorn coral.
- Coral Vita's ultimate goal
is to help kickstart a restoration economy,
where many different restoration companies
are paid to protect the ecosystems we rely on,
which in turn creates high-skilled, local jobs.
- Our first farm is located here in Grand Bahama.
Eventually, we wanna do this work in every nation
with reefs around the world.
As we mitigate threats, we need to rapidly scale up
and create new adaptation solutions.
Again, I didn't think I was gonna be a coral farmer
and my job shouldn't exist, but here I am.
It's okay to be angry and to want to give into fatalism,
but people should still have reasons for hope.
We can fix problems.
We can't do this alone.
We need material scientists. We need engineers.
We need technologists.
There is a real opportunity to make a difference.
Hey, anyone wanna be a coral farmer when you grow up?
- Me. - I do.
- I wanna be just like her when I grow up.
- Aw yeah!
Science communication, love it.