Giant rotors aim to breathe life into barrier reef
Huge rotating pumps will be installed in the Coral Sea in an attempt to save the Great Barrier Reef from climate change by cooling it.
Eight of the solar-powered devices will be placed over a section of the reef near Cairns in Australia’s far north.
It is hoped that they can ward off bleaching that has either damaged or killed coral on swathes of the 2300km long reef, the world’s largest living thing.
The machines, mounted on pontoons, use large rotating pumps to draw cooler water from 30 metres below the surface and propel it over the coral to re-create cold currents around the reef that have been weakened by warming seas. The cooler currents reduce damage and help the reef to recover after warmer water has bleached the coral.
Four serious bleaching events over the past 20 years have affected more than half the reef.
Tropical coral reefs can tolerate only small temperature changes. Bleaching of the coral kills the algae that live inside it. Its growth is stunted and it can die if temperatures do not drop back to normal levels.
"We’re hoping that turning on the fan when it’s really hot will help keep the corals more comfortable," Sheriden Morris, head of Reef and Rainforest Research Centre in Cairns, said.
She claimed that it was vital that measures were taken to save the reef now. The pumps will be placed over a square kilometre and the project will be expanded if it is a success. "This intervention will never save the whole of the Great Barrier Reef," Ms Morris said. "But it will be important for some of our valuable tourist sites."
Last month teams of reef scientists began searching for socalled super corals that have survived the bleaching events of the past two summers.
Charlie Veron, the scientist who has discovered 20 per cent of the world’s coral species, said that researchers hoped to learn why some of them were more resilient to bleaching.
"It’s gut wrenching," he told the ABC. "The predictions made well over a decade ago have all turned out to be spot on."