What does Townsville and the Republic of Maldives have in common?
Aside from incredible seascapes – they now share a common bond over an innovative program aimed at reef restoration.
ReefSeed is a first-of-its-kind portable containerised coral aquaculture system that can be set up in remote areas to produce millions of coral larvae at a time for reef restoration.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) team designed and built the system to put it through its paces for the first time during the annual ‘mass’ spawning of Great Barrier Reef corals – an important time of reproduction and rejuvenation on the Reef – in October, November and potentially even December.
The project is being developed in collaboration with the Maldives Marine Research Institute (MMRI) and the organisation’s technicians are currently being trained at AIMS on operating and maintaining the system.
After the Great Barrier Reef spawning trial at AIMS concludes, the ReefSeed system will be packed, shipped to the Maldives, and reassembled for use when their corals spawn in March 2025.
AIMS coral reproduction and aquaculture scientist Dr Muhammad Azmi Abdul Wahab said the training will include larval rearing and settlement tank processes and approaches.
“We will help our colleagues understand the processes we have been working on at AIMS across the last four years, including how we help coral larvae settle onto tiles which can be transferred to reefs on specially-designed ceramic devices, which help with survival rates in the wild,” said Dr Abdul Wahab.
“It’s exciting to be able to share the knowledge and experience we’ve gained with our international colleagues, and to see how this knowledge may help with large scale restoration on coral reefs outside of Australia.
“In the last decade, coral reefs in the Maldives have been exposed to major coral bleaching events driven by climate change. The Maldives depends on coral reefs and the species they support for sustaining communities and livelihoods. We’re proud to be playing a role in helping to support restoration efforts there and the development of local capacity in this field.”
Director General of the MMRI Shafiya Naeem said, historically, coral reef restoration efforts had been small scale on the islands.
“We now have a vision to deliver cost effective and scalable restoration for Maldivian coral reefs – an ecosystem that profoundly impacts our country’s economy, the livelihoods of our people, and our very existence,” he said.
“Collaborating closely with AIMS, we aim to test and refine this innovative approach within the Maldives, with the ultimate goal of sharing this technology with restoration practitioners across our geographically dispersed small island nation.”
What is coral spawning?
This once-a-year synchronised phenomenon is where multiple species of reef-building corals release sperm and eggs over several days following the full moon. These float to surface and fertilise, developing into coral larvae, some of which go onto settle on the reef and begin to grow, eventually creating new coral colonies.
It is also the time scientists can investigate possible ways to accelerate the heat tolerance of young corals, and fast track reef recovery through large scale coral aquaculture.
Research Program Director Dr Line Bay, who leads research in the fields of coral aquaculture, restoration and adaptation at AIMS, said coral spawning was like Christmas for coral scientists.
“It’s an incredibly exciting time of year. We and our collaborators work through the spawning nights to conduct experiments that address critical knowledge gaps in how corals respond to and recover from stress,” she said.
Experiments being conducted this year include:
- Protecting young corals with antifoul coatings (with Griffith University).
- Different strategies of delivering food to young corals held in aquaculture facilities to boost survival.
- Using robots and AI to monitor the growth and health of young corals (with Qld University of Technology).
- The introduction of symbiotic bacteria to corals to test if this helps them form more stable associations, in a step towards enhancing their heat resilience (with The University of Melbourne).
Who is involved?
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)
- Maldives Marine Research Institute (MMRI)
- ReefSeed was awarded with US$1.5M (Aus$2.3M) over three years by the G20 Coral Research and Development Accelerator Platform (CORDAP), the only international organisation fully dedicated to funding global research and development for tropical and cold-water coral restoration and conservation.
- ReefSeed uses science and technology developed under the Australian government’s Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP). The project also includes a partnership with CSIRO to investigate natural patterns of coral reproduction in the Maldives.
- RRAP is funded by a partnership between the Australian Government’s Reef Trust and the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
