Digital Unicorn Magazine, January 2020.
Most of the world’s coral reefs could be lost in as little as 30 years because of global warming and other threats. This grim prospect presents us with yet another huge environmental challenge as we seek innovation and technology to deal with effects of global warming. We must fight to protect these vital ecosystems and the many benefits they provide.
Most of the world’s coral reefs could be lost in as little as 30 years because of global warming and other threats. This grim prospect presents us with yet another huge environmental challenge as we seek innovation and technology to deal with effects of global warming. We must fight to protect these vital ecosystems and the many benefits they provide.
There’s
no question: The world needs to reduce carbon emissions enough to slow ocean
warming. Still, creative technologies are coming to the rescue as researchers
look high and low for solutions—from drones to submarines.
The
Value of Coral Reefs
Coral
reefs are often called “rainforests of the sea” for all they provide. Among the
most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet, the oceans’ reefs have an
annual economic value of $375 billion globally, helping support more than 500
million people, according to the International Union for Conservation of
Nature.
Diversity. Coral reefs take up less than 1 percent of the ocean floor
but are home to 25 percent of all known marine species. They contain more
species for their area than any other marine environment, said a report from
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. Reefs support an array of
plant and animal species, including seaweeds, bacteria, fungi, and over 4,000 species of fish
Food source. Fish that live and grow around reefs are a source of food for more than
a billion people worldwide, and not just communities near a coast. NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service puts the commercial value
of U.S. coral reef fisheries at over $100 million annually. In many developing
countries, reefs serve as a main source of food security.
Medicine. The biodiversity of reefs offers a treasure trove of possible
pharmaceuticals. Creatures that live there may be sources for medicines to
treat everything from cancer to heart disease to viruses. Researchers have
“bioprospected” for medicines in rainforests on land in recent decades, and
they are optimistic these counterparts in the sea will be just as rich.
Shoreline protection. Reefs protect 93,000 miles of shoreline in more than 100
countries, the World Resources Institute said in its report “Reefs at Risk
Revisited.” Reefs help defend against erosion caused by rising sea levels, as
well as worsening effects of storms, as we’ve seen in recent years with severe
flooding during hurricane season.
Tourism. Economies around the world take in billions of dollars each year from
scuba divers, snorkelers and tourists visiting beaches protected by reefs.
Estimates have placed the annual economic value of reef-based recreation, along
with related businesses, as high as $9.6 billion. Some 96 countries and
territories benefit, according to the World Resources Institute report.
Threats
Reefs are
being hit by threats both global and local, leaving scientists scrambling to
find varying solutions. By far the most-immediate problem is global warming, but
it is far from alone.
Global
Warming. Half the world’s coral
reefs have died out in the past 30 years because of rising sea temperatures, a
2017 UNESCO study found. Far scarier, as much as 90 percent of what’s left could
die in the next 30 years—if nothing is done to prevent it.
“Warming
is projected to exceed the ability of reefs to survive within one to three
decades for the majority of the World Heritage sites containing corals reefs,”
the report warned.*
This and
other studies have looked at widespread “bleaching” of coral in such place as
the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest reef system off the coast of
Australia. Coral gets its colors from an algae that lives inside its tissues.
The algae gets CO2 from the coral and in turn nourishes the coral with oxygen.
But stress from heat causes coral to expel the algae, which results in
bleaching that harms it in several ways and can kill off large areas.
Changes
in ocean chemistry, another effect of global warming, also harm reefs as CO2
from the atmosphere causes a rise in acidity.
Pollution. Since most reefs are in shallower waters near shore, they
are open to harm from numerous human activities and pollution, the
Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies have noted.
Several
types of pollution wind up in coastal waters:
·
urban stormwater
runoff
·
sewage
·
agricultural
fertilizer
·
plastic waste
·
toxic substances from
pesticides, sunscreen worn by swimmers, and other sources.
Fishing. Reefs suffer significant physical damage from overfishing,
destructive fishing methods and discarded fishing gear. Lost fishing nets alone
kill more than 300,000 marine mammals annually, the World Wildlife Fund has
reported. They have been found to damage reefs in many spots.
Tourism. While coral reefs help create and protect beach paradises,
the tourism they support is often harmful. People harvest coral for use in
jewelry and decoration, swimmers bring harmful sunscreens and shampoos into
waters, and divers and snorkelers cause damage when not careful.
Seeking
Solutions
One way
to repair lost coral is to grow replacements. Coral Vita, a startup based in
Grand Bahama, last year opened the world’s first land-based coral farm with the
aim of transplanting coral in the future to repair damaged reefs.
Founded
by Sam Teicher and Gator Halpern, two Yale alumni, the company is developing
strains of coral that are both suited to their intended environment and more
resilient to heat and higher acidity. By farming on land as opposed to
underwater, the company is able to fully control growing conditions.
They join
other researchers in trying to breed climate-adapted super coral.
Tragically
for Coral Vita, just six months after its first coral was growing, the company
was hit by one of global warming’s worst effects: extreme weather, also a
problem that reefs can help mitigate. In September 2019 the Bahamas were
devastated by Hurricane Dorian, the most intense storm on record ever to hit
the islands. Dorian ravaged Grand Bahama and other islands, killing at least 70
people, with many more missing.
Coral
Vita had set up shop in facilities designed to withstand a category 5
hurricane, but their operation was no match for the 17 feet of water that
Dorian brought surging in. Twenty of Coral Vita’s 30 coral tanks were swept out
to sea.
The storm
left Coral Vita to turn its attention for a time to hurricane relief for the
Bahamas.
Mapping
Coral Damage
Another
company that’s set an eye on coral reefs is DroneDeploy, a maker of
drone-mapping software. Founded in 2013, the San Francisco startup’s
cloud-based software automates drone flights and creates data-rich maps with
aerial images and modeling it collects. These maps give detailed insight used
in construction, agriculture, mining and other industries.
The
software is also an ideal tool for surveying disasters, from storms to
earthquakes. It was used during Northern California’s Camp Fire in 2018, which
burned more than 150,000 acres over 17 days and destroyed nearly 14,000 homes.
DroneDeploy’s system created status, evacuation and other maps to help the
numerous teams of fire, police and rescue personnel that were battling the
disaster.
DroneDeploy
is now setting its sights on coral reefs in a project to track the health of
the Great Barrier Reef. It is basically taking to the skies to look underwater.
The company opened an office in Australia following a $25 million, third round
of funding that was joined by AirTree Ventures, an Australian venture firm. A
fourth round announced in November brought the total raised by the company to
$90 million.
DroneDeploy
is working with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to collect data to
help repair the world-famous coral system. Over the past three decades the area
has lost half its coral cover because of bleaching and deadly starfish
outbreaks caused by pollution—sort of an Aussie Godzilla story.
With
drones, researchers can monitor huge areas at a much-lower cost than regular
aerial mapping. The software can give detailed pictures both of damage caused
and the progress of repairs. At the Great Barrier Reef, DroneDeploy’s maps may
ultimately be used in a number of reef-repair efforts.
Repairing
the Damage
On the
other end of the spectrum—underwater—an Aussie sci-fi story is developing in
the form of submarine robots. By 2015 the sleek yellow COTSbot was floating along
shallow waters of the Great Barrier Reef in a battle against swarms of damaging
starfish.
Since the 1960s, fertilizers and other pollution have sped up
outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster
planci), which cause significant damage. Researchers brought the COTSbot
(and later RangerBot) to the rescue. This is an autonomous killer robot with a
camera, machine learning that can recognize the creatures, and an arm that
injects them with a special poison.
This prototype created by Queensland
University of Technology has now been transformed into LarvalBot, an underwater
tool designed to create, rather than eradicate. The new device is loaded with
coral larvae that are collected and farmed each year. It then transplants the
larvae in spots where new coral is needed. The submarine operates autonomously,
but with a person monitoring and triggering the larvae’s release.
This
would normally be done by teams of divers. The automated approach saves on cost
and on sometimes-harmful human involvement. The robots are only a start, but
the approach opens up an sea of possibilities for the future.
Sights
on Local Threats
A host of
companies are targeting local reef threats such as pollution from sunscreen and
discarded fishing gear. Travel magazines and guides including “Lonely Planet”
are touting lines of “reef-friendly” personal-care products such as shampoo and
sunscreen, for example.
As for
fishing nets, one solution is to give them value through recycling. The Swedish
clothing company H&M has created sustainable collections of clothes
made from fishing nets—including a $400 wedding dress. Adidas, meanwhile, uses
fishing nets and plastic waste to make shoes. In fact, the German company sold
1 million shoes made from ocean plastics in 2017.
Sights
on the Future
Underlying
all of these efforts is the need to educate people around the globe about the
value of coral reefs and the dangers that reefs face. Only with wide public
support can we agree on ways to fight global warming, and invest in solutions
that will protect our oceans and reefs.
Writing Sample, John Sailors. This article was written for Digital Unicorn magazine, debut
issue, Uber Cool Publications.