Divers Attempt To Regrow Great Barrier Reef Using Electricity

Divers attempt to develop new method to restore damaged coral on the Great Barrier Reef using electricity.

The reef has been disrupted in recent years by cyclones and back-to-back heatwaves.

However, Nathan Cook at conservation group Reef Ecologic and his colleagues are attempting to regrow surviving coral fragments on steel frames. The frames are placed on affected parts of the reef and stimulated with electricity to accelerate the coral's growth.

Electrified metal frames have formally been used to encourage coral growth on reefs in South-East Asia, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. They have been used to attract mineral deposits that aid corals growth 3 to 4 times faster than normal.

The technique is been used at a section of the reef 100 kilometers north of Cairns that was badly damaged by the 2016 and 2017 mass coral bleaching events.

Nathan Cook hopes that the new method of speeding up corals growth will help the reef withstand future bleaching events.