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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/coral-reefs-solar-powered-electrical-growth/>
"In a small fisherman’s boat, two divers set off in the Andaman Islands in
India, pulling away from a pristine beach and a coast fringed by mangroves. The
sea is every shade of blue, but all is not well beneath the surface of this
picturesque archipelago. In the last two decades, its coral reefs have suffered
several bleaching events, a tsunami and stress from human activity.
Anjili Sarah and Sangamesh Uday, the two divers, plunge beneath the waves, to a
section of the vibrant coral reef that drew over half a million tourists to the
islands in 2019-20. Sturgeon, parrot fish and stingrays swim around them as
they methodically survey every inch of the reef for algal or sponge growth, new
marine life and any new damage. Ninety minutes later, they return to the boat,
compare notes and soon, dive again. They do this twice, sometimes three times a
week, assessing changes in coral and marine diversity. It is a lot of work for
a single reef. But this is no ordinary reef, and Sarah and Uday are no ordinary
divers.
They work for ReefWatch Marine Conservation, an organization that has developed
nine artificial reefs near the archipelago’s natural coral formations.
ReefWatch’s reefs are literally supercharged. Bobbing on the water’s surface, a
buoy with a solar panel, connected to the artificial reef’s metal frame,
delivers a continuous electrical current. Like a mad scientist’s creation
shocked to life by a lightning bolt, this low-voltage charge accelerates the
coral’s natural formation process.
In nature, coral grows at a creeping half-centimeter per year through the
accretion of minerals dissolved in seawater, which form a thick layer of
substrate. But on electrically charged reefs, the electric current takes on
some of the heavy lifting needed to deposit essential calcium carbonate on the
reef. “This allows coral to grow seven to twelve times faster than in nature,”
explains Nayantara Jain, director of ReefWatch. ReefWatch divers collect
naturally broken fragments of coral and zip-tie them onto their artificial
reefs. They also manually create diverse undersea habitats using rocks, shells
and aquatic plants. “We see an immediate uptick in marine life when the
artificial reef is set up,” she says. “In time, hopefully it will fuse and
bulwark the natural reef.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
