With most of THE coral reefs around Barbados either dead or dying, the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) says it is time to grow the precious living organisms and then transplant them into the sea as a way to preserve.
And that is what acting director Dr Lorna Inniss revealed was among the plans of the CZMU as she highlighted some of the work of the organisation over the past 30 years at a media briefing yesterday at Brandons Beach, St Michael.
“We have temperatures soaring in July and August and coral are extremely sensitive to small changes in temperature, so as a result when temperatures get too high, coral reefs are being stressed. What we are seeing is that many of the reefs are either dead, dying or extremely stressed and are not growing the way we would like.
“So we are actually looking at setting up coral nurseries, a very new technology across the world. We are going to be testing it over the next two years, seeing if we can get the coral to grow and then transplanting them to see how they do, which requires that we be very careful concerning the water quality of the areas we transplant them to,” she said. (CA)