I Followed Teams of Scientists on a Mission to Save Australia’s Great Barrier Reef — Here’s What I Learned

"I boarded a 64-foot catamaran with tubs wired to electrodes for what the team calls a “rapid stress test,” watching live coral fragments heated in seawater as part of hands-on experiments to mimic bleaching. I was alongside University of Technology Sydney scientists taking samples and measuring coral gases while, barely 200 feet away, tourists from another Wavelength vessel snorkeled and learned about conservation — a clear example of tourism and science working side by side. Wavelength is also one of six commercial operators involved in the Coral Nurture Program, and its founders (John Edmondson and colleagues) developed practical tools like stainless-steel Coralclips to attach fragments to damaged bommies; since 2018 the program has planted over 70,000 corals with an 85 percent survival rate and even recorded first spawning of planted corals in November 2021." - Kendall Hill