'Stars' are helping repair ruined reefs

Scientists are using steel webs to regrow coral reefs in Indonesia - with impressive results

- Danny Graham

NEW RESEARCH IN INDONESIA HAS FOUND that a simple-yet-clever device can help restored coral reefs grow as fast as healthy reefs after just four years. The study, carried out by the University of Exeter and partners and published in Current Biology, took place off the south coast of Sulawesi, where vast areas of coral reef were decimated in the 1980s and 1990s by 'blast fishing' - a destructive practice that uses explosives to stun schools of fish. Researchers looked at the work of the Mars Coral Reef Restoration Programme, which has been restoring reefs using networks of Reef Stars - hexagonal, sand-coated steel frames transplanted with coral fragments from healthy reefs.