Project Coral

Project Coral

Project Coral is a pioneering research project led by the Horniman with international partners. Central to this are the ground-breaking techniques we have developed to spawn broadcast coral ex-situ. Broadcast corals spawn over just a few nights a year, limiting access to material needed to study the impacts of climate change on reefs or to transplant sexually produced coral to repair damage. This bottleneck in access to material is slowing the speed of understanding the future of reefs and ways in which we can stem their loss and save these vitally important ocean habitats for future generations. Our methods to stimulate multiple coral spawning events ex-situ can reduce this bottleneck, increase access to material and create new possibilities in reef restoration, research and aquaculture. A significant element of this work is sharing our expertise with the broader community, so that through partnerships these techniques can have real-world value in restoring damaged reefs and furthering our understanding of the impact of climate change on coral reefs.