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This milestone could have broad implications for "The Barrier Reef of America", which is the third largest coral reef in the world and is just off the coast of the Florida Keys.
The successful result is part of what the aquarium calls "Project Coral" – a program designed in part to repopulate the Florida Reef Tract. The project works in partnership with the London Museum and Horniman Gardens to create a coral eggshell, or large egg deposits, in a laboratory.
"It's just exciting to be the first to make a breakthrough in the world," Roger Germann, CEO of the Florida Aquarium told CNN. "Our expert team has deciphered the code … that gives hope to coral in the Florida Reef Tract and Coral in the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean."
Generating spawning has never been done for Atlantic corals, so the system was put in place to see if it could work. According to Germann, many coral experts have even doubted that the aquarium efforts would produce good results.
The team began working on the research that began in 2014 with the Staghorn coral, but then focused on coral pillar because of an illness that devastated the Florida Reef Tract. The pillar corals are now classified as nearly extinct because the remaining groups of men and women are too far apart to reproduce.
"It is quite possible that we had just had our last wild spawn of corals pillars this year because of the Stoney Coral Tissue Loss Disease", Kari O'Neill, an expert in aquarium corals, said. "But with the success of this project, as a scientist, I now know that every year, for the foreseeable future, we can breed Florida's coral pillar corals and continue our efforts to rebuild the population."
According to the aquarium, coral greenhouses use advanced LED technology and computer control systems to mimic the natural environment of coral to subtly signal corals to reproduce.
Spawning now shows that genetic diversity and resilience are possible, and that this will help keep Florida's ecosystems and tourism economy intact.
"Now there is really hope … I think we can save it," added Germann.
The next steps are to continue the project and build more greenhouses so that the aquarium and scientists involved in the project can work towards creating a better ecosystem for all wildlife.
"We will accelerate it, we will not rest, we want to see a diverse coral reef," said Germann.
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