JAMIE CRAGGS

What keeps you feeling optimistic?

I think there are pockets of hope. There are some highly resilient corals out there that seem to do well despite challenging environmental conditions, and there are also still some pristine reefs left.

Have you ever had moments when you felt like giving up?

One time, early on, I missed the coral spawning because I thought it wasn’t going to happen and I went home. It was absolutely heartbreaking, but it made me realise that we needed to control the spawning, and led to the setup we have today.

What’s your response to people who say that your project won’t work?

I think they just need to come down and spend some time with us and see what we’ve achieved. What we’re developing here is going to underpin and support lots of other great, positive work.

If you could have a billboard in Piccadilly Circus, what would you write on it?

A picture tells a thousand words, so I’d put up photos of coral reefs: the colourful, healthy, vibrant ones full of fish and then the bleached, damaged, empty, dying ones… before and after shots.

What will your field of research look like in 2050?

In much the same way that people grow trees in nurseries today, I think we’ll find coral being grown in landbased nurseries on a large scale, and then used to restock the reefs.