In the twilight depths of the Gulf of Mexico, about as deep down as a football field is long, U.S. Navy divers carefully snip small branches of corals with gloved hands. Their voices crackle through communication systems to the ship above, distorted to high-pitched tones by the helium mixtures they breathe. “These guys, they’re tough, […]
  • Scientists are conducting a pioneering large-scale deep-sea coral restoration in the Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which damaged 1,994 square kilometers (770 square miles) of seafloor habitat.
  • Underwater robots and Navy divers using specialized gear to work at depths up to 100 meters (328 feet) plant coral fragments on the ocean floor, while labs in Texas, South Carolina and Florida grow corals in tanks for future transplantation.
  • The novel eight-year, multi-million-dollar project has achieved milestones including high deepwater coral survival rates at sea and the first successful spawning of deep-sea corals in captivity, which produced more than 1,000 baby corals.
  • The restoration faces ongoing threats from climate change, commercial fishing, agricultural runoff and potential future oil spills, with nearly 1,000 spills occurring in U.S. waters in 2021 and 2022 alone.
  • MattEnglish
    1·
    15 days ago

    I initially read this title and thought I missed another disaster oil spill. I read pioneers as a noun not a verb 😅