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Pemuteran Coral Restoration Project

"Mineral Accretion Technology"

(BioRock Technology)

"Pemuteran" is a small fishing village on the Northeast side of the island, Bali, Indonesia, located about as far away as one can get from the crowded, urban population centers of the South (Denpasar, etc.)

Over several years of visiting I have wittnessed the development of an amazing coral restoration project that is being carried out there. It using a technology which I believe is being overlooked by most coral propagators here in the US.

I would be quite easy to duplicate in any small coral propagation'growing activity.

The project involves the running of a low voltage current out to large man-made rebar structures out in water that have been "seeded" with coral frags.






The speed of growth of these corals is nothing short of spectacular. In just a couple of years, an amazing and beautiful artificial reef has quickly been developed in an area that was nearly a coral dead zone previously. (Due to high temp coral bleaching during El Nino years.)

What is a "BioRock Reef?"

"...Biorock technology applies a safe low-voltage electrical current through seawater, causing dissolved minerals to precipitate onto cathodic surfaces growing into white limestone/brucite structures similar to those that make up coral reefs and nourish tropical white sand beaches. Biorock methods speed up coral growth even where excessive temperatures, pollution, sedimentation and other stress-inducing factors have damaged reefs and other marine habitats..."


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The Most Unique Reef in South-East Asia

(Scuba Diver Magazine - February 2004)

"...There are no other coral reefs quite like it and it is nothinglike anything else you have seen before underwater. In theshallow bay 45 specially built steel contraptions in the shapesof caterpillars, Mexican hats, Eiffel towers, sugar loafs andtunnels are the rehabilitation platforms for broken corals.My first impression was that of an underwater educationaltheme park, a Disneyland coral reef, a new-age reef system!This unique reef system is the brain-child of scientists ProfessorWolf Hilbertz and Dr Tom Goreau.Artificial reef construction by means of mineral accretion,also known as “third generation” artificial reef systems (firstreported in Asian Geographic in 2001), is a novel technologywhich uses electricity to “grow” limestone rock on artificialreef frames and increase growth rates of corals and otherreef organisms. Two electrodes supplied with low-voltagedirect current are submerged in seawater.Electrolytic reactions at the cathode cause minerals naturallypresent in seawater to build up. At the same time a widerange of organisms on or near the growing substrate areaffected by electrochemically-changed conditions, shiftingtheir growth rates.Stray or loose living corals are carefully collected from nearbydestroyed reefs and transplanted onto the structures. Theyare attached with wires or wedged between steel bars. Thesecoral bits are quickly cemented into place by the growingminerals forming over the structure’s surface; the reefs areelectronically charged to grow..."

Biorock Technology

Since 1988, Prof. Wolf H.Hilbertz, and Coral Ecologist, Dr. Thomas J. Goreau, of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, have collaborated in research and development of Biorock with a focus on coral propagation, preservation of corals, coral reef restoration, shore protection structures, and mariculture.
Demonstration projects conducted at number of locations around the world have involved the grafting of salvaged coral fragments to Biorock Reef Structures.

Enhanced growth rates of the salvaged corals were monitored and documented.

Survival of corals on Biorock Reef Structures exceeded the survival of corals on adjacent natural coral reef formations under severely degrading environmental conditions.

Biorock Reef Structures immediately became integrated, living parts of their marine environment, providing additional substrata available and conducive to further natural settlement of wild corals.

Biorock Reef Structures have been termed "Coral Arks", which ultimately hold promise to augment repopulating of corals on natural reefs that have suffered degradation and devastation from numerous human related and natural causes.




Would be cool if someone here at 3Reef would give it a try and let the rest of us know how well it works...(or keep it a secret & get rich...)

(Just for Fun)

(Sailing Bali Style - 2005)