From Wired: Electricity Revives Coral Reef.
PEMUTERAN, North Bali -- As the late afternoon sun bathes the beach with a soft warmth, gentle waves lap quietly at the shore -- and strollers occasionally stumble over a thick wad of white cables embedded in the fine, black sand.
The cables seem to disappear into the sea, where large blue plastic balls bob in the waves. And they seem to come out of nowhere, sprouting like a nasty growth on the face of this stretch of tropical paradise on Bali's northwestern coast.
The wires are part of highly original and ambitious underwater experiment: the use of low-voltage electrical current to stimulate regrowth in a badly damaged coral reef. Conceived by coral expert Tom Goreau of the United States and German architecture professor Wolf Hilbertz, the project began four years ago and has already achieved remarkable results.
Covering a total length of nearly 1,000 feet, the Karang Lestari Project -- "coral preservation" in Indonesian -- is the world's largest coral nursery ever built using this technology.
"You can really see the difference in the reef in just a short time," said Chris Brown, owner of Reef Seen Aquatics Dive Center, which co-sponsors the project along with local hotels and shops committed to preserving the reef. [continue]
The Pemuteran Artificial Reef pages at GlobalCoral.org have more information, and lots of photos.
Posted on August 25, 2004 03:23 PM. Filed under: environment.