Conservationists Are Electric Shocking Thailand’s Coral Reefs Back to Life
Scientists have known for years that the coral reef systems of the world are in decline. Beautiful and delicate, while they only cover less than 1% of the sea floor, they’re home to more than a quarter of all marine life and produce half of the oxygen we breathe.
Fighting against the impacts of threats like pollution, climate change, and coastal development, conservationists worldwide have been scrambling to find ways to save this incredible natural resource. One promising solution emerging in the Gulf of Thailand is mineral accretion technology — the generation of a low-voltage electrical current through the coral to stimulate its growth.
First explored in the 1970s by the company BioRock, the technique is familiar in the marine biology community, but largely plateaued due to factors like patent restriction and the enormous maintenance costs. A group of conservationists on Koh Tao, Thailand, however, have found a way to repurpose the original intention of the technology, in a much more cost-effective and efficient way. They call it CoralAid, and it has presented promising results to the reef health in the bays where it’s been implemented. So promising, in fact, that they hope to launch the project as an open-source guide available to conservationists worldwide, offering the guidance and tools…
