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  #1  
Old 12/04/2007, 09:36 PM
WantABigTank WantABigTank is offline
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News article states low-voltage electricity revives coral reefs.

I just read a new article that states low-voltage electricity "spurs the weakened coral to revival and greater growth". I don't have much to contribute to the thread since my knowledge limited to fish-only tanks but thought this would be of interest here. I always believed any voltage in the aquarium to be bad.

The link and the full article is below:


http://www.optimum.net/News/AP/Artic...&categoryId=66

Electricity Revives Bali Coral Reefs
PEMUTERAN BAY, Indonesia, Tue Dec 04, 08:15 PM

Just a few years ago, the lush coral reefs off Bali island were dying out, bleached by rising temperatures, blasted by dynamite fishing and poisoned by cyanide. Now they are coming back, thanks to an unlikely remedy: electricity.

The coral is thriving on dozens of metal structures submerged in the bay and fed by cables that send low-voltage electricity, which conservationists say is reviving it and spurring greater growth.

As thousands of delegates, experts and activists debate climate at a conference that opened this week on Bali, the coral restoration project illustrates the creative ways scientists are trying to fight the ill-effects of global warming.

The project — dubbed Bio-Rock — is the brainchild of scientist Thomas Goreau and the late architect Wolf Hilbertz. The two have set up similar structures in some 20 countries, but the Bali experiment is the most extensive.

Goreau said the Pemuteran reefs off Bali's northwestern shore were under serious assault by 1998, victims of rising temperatures and aggressive fishing methods by impoverished islanders, such as stunning fish with cyanide poison and scooping them up with nets.

"Under these conditions, traditional (revival) methods fail," explained Goreau, who is in Bali presenting his research at the U.N.-led conference. "Our method is the only one that speeds coral growth."


Some say the effort is severely limited.

Rod Salm, coral reef specialist with the Nature Conservancy, said while the method may be useful in bringing small areas of damaged coral back to life, it has very limited application in vast areas that need protection.

"The extent of bleaching ... is just too big," Salm said. "The scale is enormous and the cost is prohibitive."

Others note the Bali project is mostly dependent on traditionally generated electricity, a method that itself contributes to global warming. Goreau himself concedes it has yet to attract significant financial backing.

Nonetheless, scientists agree that coral reefs are an especially valuable — and sensitive — global environmental asset. They provide shorelines with protection from tides and waves, and host a stunning diversity of plant and sea life..

Goreau's method for reviving coral is decidedly low-tech, if somewhat unorthodox.

It has long been known that coral that breaks off the reef can be salvaged and restored if it can somehow be reattached.

What Goreau's Bali project has done is to construct metal frames, often in the shape of domes or greenhouses, and submerge them in the bay. When hooked up to a low-voltage energy source on the shore, limestone — a building block of reefs — naturally gathers on the metal. Workers then salvage coral that has broken from damaged reefs and affix it to the structure.

Goreau and his supporters say the electricity spurs the weakened coral to revival and greater growth.

"When they get the juice, they are not as stressed," said Rani Morrow-Wuigk, an Australian-German woman who rents bungalows on the beach and has supported efforts to save the reefs for years.

And indeed, the coral on the structures appear vibrant, and supporters say they have rebounded with impressive vigor. The coral in Pemuteran teems with clownfish, damselfish and other colorful tropical animals.

Funding, however, is a major problem. There are some 40 metal structures growing coral in Pemuteran Bay and about 100 cables laid to feed them with electricity, but only about a third of the wires are working because of maintenance problems and the cost of running them, said Morrow-Wuigk.

The electrification program is part of a wider effort in the bay to save the coral.

Chris Brown, an Australian diving instructor who has lived in Bali for 17 years, said he and other people determined to save the reefs have had a long struggle driving away fishermen who use dynamite and other coral-destroying methods to maintain their livelihoods.

He said a key has been demonstrating to shoreline communities the benefits of coral reef maintenance, such as growing fish stocks and jobs catering to tourists who come to dive in the area.

Brown has participated in Goreau's projects, and won funding from the Australian government to set up a Bio-Rock structure electrified by solar panels fixed on a floating off-shore platform.

Brown has also used seed-money from Canberra to establish the Reef Gardeners of Pemuteran, which trains islanders to dive, maintain the solar-paneled coral structure and clean the reefs of harmful animals.

Kadek Darma, 25, a Balinese who has worked with Brown for two years, said the advantages of the corals to the local economy were obvious.

"They attract the tourists, and more tourists means more jobs," he said. "I hope we can all keep maintaining the reefs for our great-great grandchildren."
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  #2  
Old 12/04/2007, 09:53 PM
racksteris racksteris is offline
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kool
  #3  
Old 12/04/2007, 09:57 PM
steven_dean17 steven_dean17 is offline
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So should we juice our tanks? I wouldn't think so. With that said, if works on any kind of natural reef, fry that sucker.
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  #4  
Old 12/04/2007, 10:18 PM
greenbean36191 greenbean36191 is offline
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The idea has been around for something like 60 years but its use for restoring reefs is really limited. In most cases, the growth rate of the corals isn't what's keeping them from recovering. It's widespread problems like eutrophication, disease, extractive use, bleaching, etc. and just making the corals grow faster doesn't help a whole lot, especially when you can only do it in very small patches and only relatively close to shore. It's kind of like going into an area of the rainforest that has been slashed and burned and trying to save the forest by fertilizing an acre. You still need lots of healthy recruits nearby to come in and you have to control what caused the decline in the first place. Every little bit helps, but success of restoration projects increases immensely with size.

This isn't something that can be done in captivity because it creates chlorine gas. It would poison everything in the tank without the dilution the ocean provides.
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Last edited by greenbean36191; 12/04/2007 at 10:25 PM.
  #5  
Old 12/05/2007, 01:33 PM
RobbyG RobbyG is offline
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There's a video at the bottom of this link about propogating rare corals in the Lab.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/1...19-502-ak-0000
  #6  
Old 12/05/2007, 06:52 PM
JaredWaites JaredWaites is offline
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Yeah this is old you can check out more info on Biorock.net for more information on the actual process, etc.

Sadly Professor Wolf H. Hilbertz has died and Goreau has continued to move forward with development in the Bio Rock process.

It not only used for coral reef restoration but it can provide new reefs where others weren't, plus it can be used for erosion control of beaches.

Many beaches in Florida and Texas are losing FEET, not inches every Hurricane season and due to limited funding from the state and local government, its getting worse, people are losing property they once had, and houses are getting destroyed...if the Bio rock process was used in some of these cases, this could all be prevented by slowing the erosion so the dredging will be feasible.
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  #7  
Old 12/05/2007, 08:06 PM
steven_dean17 steven_dean17 is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by RobbyG
There's a video at the bottom of this link about propogating rare corals in the Lab.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/1...19-502-ak-0000
Thats fragging the hard way.
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  #8  
Old 12/05/2007, 08:55 PM
JaredWaites JaredWaites is offline
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Hell yeah. But if you could get a bunch of viable polyps to produce it might be a new way in aquaculture!
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