'Test-tube coral babies' may mend reefs

[deadparrot]

KEY LARGO, Fla. - Marine scientists hope "test-tube coral babies" will take root to help restore a tract of reef ravaged by a 1984 ship grounding in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

A team of University of Miami marine science researchers is collecting coral eggs and sperm all this week during an annual reproductive ritual, dubbed coral spawning.

Looking like an upside-down, underwater snowstorm, most corals in the Keys, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean release eggs and sperm into the water a few days after the full moon in August. In the wild, eggs and sperm randomly mix and fertilize to become larvae. Some take root to become foundation blocks for new coral.

Researchers led by Margaret Miller, an ecologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, gather spawn in cone-shaped, tent collectors anchored over portions of the coral reef off Key Largo. The spawn is blended in jars and the portion that fertilizes is transported to a field laboratory.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060816/ap_on_sc/coral_babies

[Kiouni]

1. that's hot

[xxqqqzme]

2. lets keep our fingers crossed

for this development. We need some good environmental news for a change.

[rawtribe]

3. The fertilized coral need

a place to grow....

http://www.eternalreefs.com

[Judi Lynn]

4. Sure hope it works. Many kinds of miracles are needed now. n/t

[0007]

5. This is great news......hope we're on to something!

[krkaufman]

6. Hope it works, but won't hold my breath

The article doesn't mention the widespread bleaching of reefs around the world. This may help to replace a stretch of coral lost to a physical collsion, but won't stem the tide being lost to the larger environmental collision.

[Barrett808]

7. I'm thinking we'll need to genetically engineer coral organisms...

...that can withstand higher temperature, more acidic water.