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      Can Coral Nurseries Bring Reefs Back from the Brink? [Slide Show]

      A growing group of scientists is attempting to save coral reefs by cultivating them

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      Can Coral Nurseries Bring Reefs Back from the Brink? [Slide Show]
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      Credits: Erik Vance

      Can Coral Nurseries Bring Reefs Back from the Brink? [Slide Show]

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      • PATCH OF ORANGE IN A SEA OF BLUE: A researcher checks on a coral nursery in Zanzibar. Shai Shafir
      • TENDING THE NURSERY: Miguel Angel-Garcia from the Veracruz Aquarium takes photos of the corals in the aquarium. Later, he can run them through a special program that will analyze their health. Erik Vance
      • FLOURISHING CLONES: If not removed quickly enough, corals can quickly colonize an entire nursery. Because they are clones of one another, that means they can even fuse into one colony. Oceanus
      • BACK TO THE WILD: "Replanting" corals involves drilling into rock or dead reef. Whereas most have flourished, at least one of the replaced corals was later stolen by black market collectors. Oceanus
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      • REGROWTH: Nava shows off a growing colony of elkhorn coral, while Miguel Angel-Garcia from the Veracruz Aquarium looks on. Erik Vance
      • DEDICATED LOCALS: Nava and Miguel Roman Vives [ foreground ] founded Oceanus, which created Mexico's first coral nursery in 2007. Many say that buy-in from local communities for coral nurseries is crucial to their ongoing success... Erik Vance
      • LONELY PIONEER: A solitary Acropora colony stands with Veracruz in the background. Pollution and development are the main factors driving the rapid disappearance of reefs in the region. Erik Vance
      • CORAL WASTELAND Dead coral surrounding a beacon meant to warn ships off of the reef in Veracruz. Erik Vance:
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      • TIED TO THE NURSERY: Gaby Nava of the NGO Oceanus describes how the coral fragments are placed in a plastic socket on the nursery to grow. The group has also experimented with reused soda bottles. Erik Vance
      • REEFS HIT HARD: The city of Veracruz as seen from a hulking shipwreck from the 1990s. Neither the U.S. nor Mexico has any laws requiring negligent shipping companies to replace reefs destroyed by ship strikes... Erik Vance
      • ROCK CANDY: Baruch Rinkevich and many other aquaculturists have begun favoring "rope nurseries" that grow quickly without interference from sediment or ground-based pests and can easily be pulled out... Gideon Levy
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      • PATCH OF ORANGE IN A SEA OF BLUE:
      • TENDING THE NURSERY:
      • FLOURISHING CLONES:
      • BACK TO THE WILD:
      • REGROWTH:
      • DEDICATED LOCALS:
      • LONELY PIONEER:
      • CORAL WASTELAND
      • TIED TO THE NURSERY:
      • REEFS HIT HARD:
      • ROCK CANDY:
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