“It’s a really special part of the world,” says marine biologist Taryn Foster from the Abrolhos Islands, 40 miles from the coast of Western Australia.
“Climate change is the most significant threat to coral reefs around the world,” says Cathie Page from the Australian Institute of Marine Science’s (AIMS).
“Severe bleaching events caused by climate change can have very negative effects,” Ms Page continues, “and we don’t have good solutions yet”.
“Some of these processes in coral propagation are just repetitive pick and place tasks, and they’re ideally suited to robotic automation,” says Ms Foster
However the real world presents many challenges: wet, living coral needs to be handled delicately, possibly on a moving boat, and saltwater is potentially damaging to electronics.
“To stay ahead of the curve and enable coral reefs to survive a warming future requires a substantial investment of time, money, and human capital,” says AIMS scientist Cathie Page.
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