First In Vitro Fertilization on Coral on the Great Barrier Reef Receives Help From Whitsunday Tourism Industry

Once a year, after the full moon, a coral reef reproduces each year thanks to an underwater “snow storm”.

This year, coral sex life on the Great Barrier Reef has more onlookers than normal.

“Swimming in egg and sperm soup is a unique experience, something I would encourage everyone to do if given the opportunity,” said diving instructor Tony Fontes.

The Whitsundays are the first islands in the world to be part of an expanded “Coral IVF” program, in which tour operators work alongside scientists to increase the chances of propagation.

Over the course of a week, coral eggs were collected for fertilization in floating larvae nursery tanks.

The fertilized larvae were then collected and released in concentrated doses at a damaged reef off Hook Island, where it is hoped that new life will thrive.

Coral “sexpert” Peter Harrison of Southern Cross University pioneered the technique, after decades of field work taught him that popular understanding of coral reproduction was wrong.

‘Most corals don’t reproduce by producing lots of small larvae in their polyps and releasing them,’ said Professor Harrison.

“They actually produce a lot of eggs and sperm and release them during egg-laying events.”

Collecting the spawn, Professor Harrison said they were improving the natural process.

“In most cases, during a week’s development of the larvae, most move away from the parent reef and end up drifting into the ocean and not actually contributing to the next generation,” he said.

With high success rates for the first four years of coral reef research and testing, Professor Harrison hopes the large-scale approach will continue to see similar results.

A world first

Plans to expand in vitro fertilization on coral are one of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s ongoing projects, with CEO Anna Marsden saying she was particularly close to her heart.

“That’s why we’re getting a helping hand from the local community and tourism operators who are helping us collect as many spawns as possible, because essentially every piece of this is a baby coral.”

Mr. Fontes has been watching the changes on the reef for over 40 years and said the community was lively for the opportunity to contribute.

“Scientists have created a technique that is definitely something we laymen can handle with their training,” he said.

“At the end of the day, cost matters, and when tour operators can do it as volunteers with minimal cost, then it’s a project that can continue and grow, and that’s the beauty of involving Whitsunday tourism.”

The importance of “underwater cities”

The ability to regrow coral reefs is hampered by the time it takes for the coral to reach maturity, with some taking up to 10 years to be of reproductive age.

But Ms. Marsden hopes communities all along the reef will participate in in vitro fertilization of corals within the next five years.

“Coral reefs are the lungs of the seas and are important underwater cities for much of the marine life we ​​love,” he said.

“So it’s really important that we are able to rebuild these underwater cities as fast as we are losing them, [and] at the moment we are not up to it. ”

Mr. Fontes is also concerned about the larger, longer-term issues impacting the reef.

“Because all the little corals we put out there won’t survive coral bleaching any better than the corals that preceded them.”

But being a part of the annual coral spawn is a special experience not to be missed for the longtime diver.

“I’m not a coral sex therapist, yet they wired it. I’m just an outside observer, which sounds a little strange.”