Roughly 50 to 60 percent
of the world's corals have been lost.
One of the major functions of coal reefs
is to be an offshore break of waves coming in.
So they really protect the coast lines.
It's urgent, very urgent.
The time is now
and I really think we can make a meaningful difference.
The Coral Restoration Foundation
is trying to take a very
active approach to reef restoration.
- [Male Speaker] We know that we can grow coral in a nursery
and we know that we can plant that coral on the reef.
And now the only question is
how much coral can we get out there
and how quickly can we do it.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- [Female Speaker] Corals are probably the most
complicated but seemingly simple critters around.
Corals are animals,
minerals,
and plants all at the same time.
Corals reefs come from
multiple corals existing in the same space,
and all of those different nooks
and crannies become homes for other animals.
When corals experience water temperatures
that are too high for too long
they in essence bleach,
and then essentially starve.
If corals go away, there's a lot of damage on land
that's going to happen.
So we're doing a fair amount of research
on coral resilience,
looking at coral genetics,
looking at the physiology of corals
all the way up to actual genetic manipulation
of a coral to be more resilient to keep events.
(ruffling)
Research is a critical aspect of what we do
at the Coral Restoration Foundation.
But eventually you have to move from the research side
to the practice side.
(coughing)
- [Male Speaker] A day on the water for us
might start with a quick run out to one of our nurseries.
- [Female Speaker] We have a suite of
offshore coral nurseries,
they're located about 3 miles off the Florida Keys.
We propagate them,
and we maintain them on what's known as a coral tree,
which is a method that we actually pioneered
at the Coral Restoration Foundation.
- [Male Speaker] We collect some of the corals
and then we'll bring those corals up out of those nursery,
place them on the boat,
drive the boat out to a reef sight,
and then get in the water with those corals
and start planting them.
(static)
- [Female Speaker] The first year
that CRF out-planted corals, we out planted 6.
Last year in 2018 we planted 25 thousand,
This year we're going for about 30 thousand.
So we are trying to replace
and start to rebuild alot of the populations that were lost.
(music fading)
- [Male Speaker] The coral tree is now
internationally regarded as one of the best ways
for growing large numbers of corals.
- [Female Speaker] What we've seen
is actually accelerates their grow rate
3 to 6 times faster depending on the species,
than a coral that is on the reef itself.
- [Male Speaker] That is seriously scaling up
your restoration capacity.
(peaceful piano music)
As we scaled up,
we went from one thousand corals,
to 5 thousand corals,
to 10 thousand corals every year we realized,
this is incredibly time consuming.
And so what we've done at CRF
is implemented a photo mosaic monitoring program.
Where we create huge,
super high resolution images of the reef area
where we've been working,
and then use those images to monitor restoration success.
And it also gives us much more relevant insights
as we continue to scale up to that reef wide level.
- [Female Speaker] We have a long way to go
it's definitely not an easy path
but if I didn't think we were on to something
I wouldn't be able to continue to do the work that we do.
- [ Male Speaker] These kinds of high in the sky ideals,
are actually more practical than you think.
You just need to commit to doing it
on a scale that makes a lasting long-term impact.
Hey, thanks for watching. In this series by Freethink we're looking at some of the boldest
ideas for dealing with the changing climate.
We've got more videos coming up soon. Hit subscribe and you'll get to see those as soon as they're released.