which they take broken, once dying coral fragments and attach them to the metal framework to allow it to recover with soy based wire. The metal structure also doubles as a place for fish to live and clean themselves.

~Project REGENERATE is an organization in the Maldives working to restore coral reefs. It is mainly funded by the American government. They are currently building capacity for marine management and climate change adaptation of ecosystems, local

communities and government in the Maldives. They go to local communities and educate them on the effects of climate change, and implement measuring tools as they do so to learn more about coral bleaching and what prevention strategies are the most useful.

~The Global Coral Reef Alliance are currently growing a reef in front of a severely eroded beach on the tourist resort island of Ihuru, The project is 45 meters long, about 4-8 meters wide, and 1.5 meters high. It was constructed of welded construction steel rods at a cost of a few percent of a concrete or rock wall. The beach has grown by 15 meters in the last two years, and the new coral reef is a safe haven for fish. The coral reef they grew also helped to boost tourism at the hotel.

 

 

Growing new coral in damaged coral reefs

Growing new coral is used to support hotels, but that's not usually the case. The method is most often put into practice by environmentalists who want to help coral reefs recover. Growing new coral re-establishes ecosystems that were once lost. The metal structures used don't require very much maintenance either. In fact, the structures with electricity flowing through them may also make the corals fitter and better able to withstand warming events, perhaps because the creatures waste less energy on making their skeletons. It also increases biodiversity. The negative thing is that growing coral is a very long process, and transplanting it in damaged reefs requires a lot of finesse. As for using the method of metal cages, that is very expensive and the materials used to manufacture the cages are not sustainable on a level that they are needed. Despite this, they are still extremely effective on a small-scale. If given enough funding and time, the growth of new coral could become the leading action taken by those who care about coral.

 

 

Encouraging the growth of coral

As mentioned under “perspective on issue” the Outrigger Konotta Maldives Resort is one of the many lodges trying to revive their coral that has been lost to bleaching. They have metal structures in the water on which they take broken, once dying coral fragments and attach them to the metal framework to allow it to recover with soy based wire. The metal structure also doubles as a place for fish to live and clean themselves. This process of regrowth is extremely effective but not that popularized. It works like this: a metal cage that has electrical currents running through it is sent to the ocean floor. The electricity triggers a chemical reaction, which leads to calcium carbonate coming out of solution in the water and being deposited on the structure. This then encourages coral to grow. Various hotels have purchased this to help regain tourism from the loss of coral, and at the same time it supports the coral reefs. It is also possible that the coral becomes more resilient from this technique to global warming. However, the technique is expensive and the grown coral is still very susceptible to another mass warming event - which would set back all progress that the hotels worked for.