Coral spawning

[MarkGibbs]

Hi all, the Queensland University of Technology is looking for a yacht to be a research support vessel for a coral restoration project off Cairns during coral spawning in late November.

Please give me a holler on 0419 634 642 if you know anyone who might be interested
Dr Mark Gibbs

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Mark.

This project?
Reef RangerBot becomes ‘LarvalBot’ to spread coral babies
➥ https://www.qut.edu.au/news?id=137688

[MarkGibbs]

Hi, yes, this is part of the project

Mark

[GordMay]

Witness the Nighttime Magic of Spawning Coral ~ Deep Look

Video [5:30] ➥ https://youtu.be/SP3nKAqLy4E

Transcript ➥ https://www.kqed.org/science/1991266...ant-snow-globe

For more information, see:
Coral Regeneration Lab [CoRL] at the California Academy of Sciences
➥ https://www.calacademy.org/about-us/...ation-lab-corl


When the moon, sun and ocean temperatures all align, an underwater "snowstorm" occurs. Corals put on a massive spawning spectacle by sending tiny white spheres floating up the water column all at once.

About 10 days after a full moon, an upside-down underwater blizzard occurs. Tiny spheres float up the water column. But they're not sand particles or algae, they're packets of egg and sperm from coral. This snowlike spectacle is known as coral spawning.

Corals are not plants or rocks, but colonies of hundreds of thousands of tiny animals called polyps. These polyps look like underwater flowers, with a soft body, a mouth and tentacles.

Polyps obtain nutrients from single-celled algae called zooxanthellae, which live in their tissue. The coral provides protection and compounds for photosynthesis. In return, zooxanthellae supply elements to build calcium carbonate skeletons that give them their stony structure.

Corals can’t move to find a partner and mix up their gene pool, so they’ve adapted a unique reproductive strategy that allows their eggs and sperm to fertilize with other colonies. The polyps release their gamete bundles together, at a time determined by environmental factors determined by the lunar cycle, setting sun, and temperature. Scientists believe this ensures high levels of fertilization across the ocean.

- What are corals known for?
Coral reefs provide habitat for a quarter of marine life, including fish, crustaceans, mollusks and sea turtles. Corals can be found throughout the world’s oceans, in both shallow and deep water.

— How long can a coral live?
Studies have shown that some corals can live up to 5,000 years, making them the longest- living animals on Earth.

- Do all corals live in warm water?
No. In fact, over half of all known coral species are found in cold, deep and dark waters. These corals feed by waiting for small food particles to swim by, and they lack the symbiotic algae that live in the tissue of warm water corals.

– Do corals have other forms of reproduction?
There are many species of coral, but only two main types of reproduction. Corals reproduce either asexually, by budding, fragmentation and fission, or sexually, through broadcast spawning and brooding.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by MarkGibbs

Hi all, the Queensland University of Technology is looking for a yacht to be a research support vessel for a coral restoration project off Cairns during coral spawning in late November.

Please give me a holler on 0419 634 642 if you know anyone who might be interested
Dr Mark Gibbs

Hello, Mark,

I don't know how hard it would be for you to do, but having the project contact the marinas for getting the word out among the cruisers, the active boaters there would be one way to look for yachties who might be able to help with the project. It is a project that many cruisers are likely to be interested in. Whether or not they'd have the time, the project and they would have to determine. [Foreign boats flying courtesy flags would be a good bet.]

Ann