Page 28: of Marine Technology Magazine (May/Jun 2026)

FEATURE UNIVERSITIES

Coral bleaching was found to be followed by an unprecedented outbreak of black band disease, killing Goniopora corals.

Image courtesy of Maria Byrne / University of Sydney

CORAL REEF

RESCUE UNDERWAY

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffered during the 2014-2017 Third

Global Coral Bleaching Event. It’s suffering again now during the fourth, and Australian universities are leading efforts to keep it alive.

By Wendy Laursen esearchers and rangers have deployed the ? rst batch analyze the information. of aquaculture-reared young corals on to the Great “The instruments we use operate in dif? cult environments

Barrier Reef. It took 130 people to collect an esti- and can get damaged. A tenacious barnacle can ruin months

Rmated 14.6 million coral eggs during spawning to of data,” said AIMS Oceanography and Shelf Processes Team get the project started. Then in February this year, they de- Lead Simon Spagnol, who oversees a network of buoys and ployed 44,608 seeding devices, each containing around 10 moorings as part of AIMS’ work with IMOS (Integrated Ma- young corals, from 13 vessels. rine Observing System).

Now they watch and wait. “You might put down a wire as thick as your thumb but when

Their aim: to help the Great Barrier Reef survive global you pull it out it might have quadrupled in diameter due to bar- warming in the decades ahead. nacles and other sea creatures becoming attached. This can mess

Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science with sensors and prevent you from collecting important data. (AIMS) and partners have established an interlinked network “There are some easy ? xes, like applying zinc cream or cop- of weather stations, moorings, buoys and other sensor-loaded per tape to prevent encrustations. It is important to be in prob- devices to collect data on tropical marine ecosystems and as- lem solving mode to ensure you can collect the best data for sembled a team of oceanographers to coordinate efforts and as long as possible from these instruments.” 28 May/June 2026

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