[HN Gopher] Indonesia coral reef partially restored in extensive...
___________________________________________________________________
 
Indonesia coral reef partially restored in extensive project
 
Author : orblivion
Score  : 60 points
Date   : 2021-05-05 20:52 UTC (2 hours ago)
 
web link (www.forbes.com)
w3m dump (www.forbes.com)
 
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| Not a lot of details here other than the "reef stars" which
| provide a substrate for new coral growth. But what led to the
| coral death in the first place? Probably warmer water - not sure
| how this helps with that unless they're attaching species that
| can do well in warmer water (such as corals from the red sea, for
| example). There could have been other issues that led to coral
| death in that area such as an overabundance of nitrogen and
| phosphates from fertilizer runoff - unless that's addressed it's
| going to keep happening.
 
  | Alex3917 wrote:
  | > But what led to the coral death in the first place? Probably
  | warmer water
  | 
  | Building resorts near the water isn't compatible with having
  | living reefs. Not to mention that not only does Indonesia not
  | ban reef-toxic sunscreen, stores don't even sell reef-safe
  | sunscreen.
 
  | sphericalgames wrote:
  | Dynamite fishing is the number 1 cause of coral reef
  | destruction in Indonesia. Search for "blast fishing in
  | Indonesia" - there are plenty of youtube videos of the
  | devastation this causes. They now have protected areas that
  | have zero tolerance to blast fishing with regular patrols and
  | long sentences if caught. Such protected areas are thriving in
  | coral.
 
  | freeflight wrote:
  | To add to your list of possible causes: Ocean acidification [0]
  | 
  | [0]
  | https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/22324/20190610/ocean-a...
 
| jhauris wrote:
| DDG returned a forbes article which has much more information
| about the project[1]. Maybe my search prowess isn't very good,
| but that's the best I could find (it presents the information
| much more easily than the Sheba project page).
| 
| The reef stars are seeded with reef fragments, which can be
| easily grown in tanks. They say that they are using 42 "types" of
| coral. These frags will likely grow really quickly, and fill the
| area with coral. It's really great to see so much money and
| effort that uses local resources to help restore the reefs. This
| will could really help kickstart reef restoration in the areas.
| 
| I wish I could find more detailed information on the project; if
| the 42 "types" are from 42 unique source corals, and they are of
| different species, it seems like a limited improvement. Corals
| can't reproduce with their own clones. If it is the case it's
| from 42 sources, then while this will definitely help restore the
| environment in the short term, it may be of limited long-term
| help, particularly if the sources of destruction are not
| addressed.
| 
| 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johannaread/2021/05/05/the-
| sheb...
 
  | dang wrote:
  | Ok, we've changed the URL to that from
  | https://www.bbc.com/news/av/science-environment-56985594 above.
  | Thanks!
 
  | throwaway894345 wrote:
  | I recently watched a new Nova episode about scientists trying
  | to find and/or breed and deploy heat-resistant coral to
  | maintain certain imperiled ecosystems. It's really interesting
  | and relevant to anyone who is interested in this sort of thing.
 
| orblivion wrote:
| I keep seeing stories about reef disappearing on here so I
| thought this would be good to see as well.
 
  | pstuart wrote:
  | Just enough hope to not give up, yet not so much as to let off
  | pressure to fix things.
 
| chris_overseas wrote:
| There's also this article about coral reef restoration in Belize
| that also sounds like some rare good news for corals:
| https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210430-the-woman-who-re...
| It's interesting to see how they've learned to grow the coral
| quicker and more effectively.
 
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-05-05 23:00 UTC)