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The Sparkies are known for their brilliant ideas and Gary McKenna has proposed an absolute doozy.
The electrician of Irish origin lives in the far north of Queensland and loves diving on the Great Barrier Reef. But in 2016, when his six-year-old son Khai was pissed off while snorkeling on whitened coral, it made him think.
If Gary could grow coral from commercially purchased cuttings at home in his aquarium, why could not we do the same in the ocean to help the world's largest living organism, the Great Barrier Reef? coral?
He still remembers the three words that gave birth to an idea that has become an organization receiving global support.
"Dad, it's dead," Khai said as the two men hovered over the colorless coral, bleached by higher sea-water temperatures than usual.
"I had an aquarium and I used to buy coral at $ 100 a unit until I discovered that I could cut it with scissors and do it push myself. I was doing this one day while listening to the news about bleaching on television and wondering we could do something on the reef to help it.
"I did some research and discovered that the spread of corals was being done overseas to help restore the reefs, so I started asking people to do the same here. are laughed at me and asked me if I had a board of directors. "
The idea of growing and transplanting coral has been developed in Florida to counter the effects of bleaching corals, diseases, hurricanes and cold snaps. The coral colonies had become separated and too far apart to reproduce effectively.
It has also gained ground in Hawaii, where corals grow very slowly, and in Cuban national waters.
Gary's first stop was a social enterprise program in Cairns. He needed to know how to turn his idea into a concrete solution for the troubled reef.
It's there that he met Stewart Christie, former managing director, civil engineer and project manager at Advance Cairns.
After leading the organization for maximum economic development in the region, Stewart understood just how much the Great Barrier Reef was valuable to the community and the economy. It supports the direct employment of more than 64,000 people.
Together, they recruited Rob Giason with over 40 years of experience in tourism and marine scientist Adam Smith.
Divers maintain one of the coral tree frames near Fitzroy Island.
While a second wave of bleaching hit the Great Barrier Reef during the summer of 2016-2017, the nonprofit Reef Restoration Foundation was created, with Stewart as its head and Gary directing the operations from the nursery.
Ken Nedimyer, Florida's coral restoration expert, has been hired to help refine the concept, but Mother Nature has not finished.
The reef suffered another shock when the violent tropical cyclone Debbie hit the Whitsundays in March 2017.
Twelve months ago, the Foundation broke ground by securing the first Australian exploitation, growth and coral planting permit in the World Heritage area.
"Once we obtained the license, we harvested 24 corals that had survived the bleaching process, turned them into 246 pieces of coral and attached them to six" tree "frames on Fitzroy Island. corals and are controlled, cleaned and measured regularly, "says Gary.
"Six months later, we harvested 16 other corals. These 40 corals were transformed into 700 pieces of coral and some grew four or five times their initial size after 10 months.
"If we empty the nursery tomorrow and put 700 corals in a small area of Fitzroy Island, it would make a big difference, you could build your own 700 coral dive site.
"We started with four different types of corals and hope to include others in the coming years."
The first complete cycle of collection, growth and planting was completed in August when 100 new coral colonies were attached to damaged reefs on Fitzroy Island using underwater glue, while the 40 colonies were mothers were kept on the coral trees to repeat the process.
Now, he and Khai are encouraging the public to join the Coral Crusaders campaign of the Reef Restoration Foundation to speed up the project, expand the nurseries and strengthen the reef. Crusaders can "adopt" a $ 50 coral, build a $ 500 branch or maintain a $ 10,000 tree.
Learn more at www.reefrestorationfoundation.org or follow Reef Restoration Foundation on Facebook.
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