Besides their natural beauty, coral reefs also have an important role in the natural world. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about a quarter of all fish in the ocean depend on healthy coral reefs.
Reinhard Dirscherl | Ullstein Bild | beautiful pictures
Danish energy company Orsted plans to try growing coral on the base of offshore wind turbines to see if the approach can be implemented on a larger scale.
Together with Taiwanese partners, the concept will be tested in “Taiwan’s tropical waters.” This week’s news represents the latest step forward in the company’s ReCoral initiative, which it launched in 2018.
Last year, participants with ReCoral were able to grow young corals in a coastal area. They are planted on what Orsted says are “underwater concrete and steel platforms.”
Proof-of-concept trials in June 2022 will include an attempt to tackle larvae and then grow corals at Truong Hoa 1 Offshore Wind Farm, a major facility in waters off the coast. Taiwan from 35 to 60 km (22 to 37 miles). The project will utilize 1 square meter measuring areas on four foundations.
In a statement on Wednesday, Orsted said the goal of the project is “to determine if corals can be successfully grown on offshore wind turbines and to assess a positive biodiversity impact. potential of scaling the initiative.”
Besides their vivid beauty, coral reefs also have an important role in the natural world.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, about a quarter of all fish in the ocean depend on healthy coral reefs. “Fish and other organisms shelter, forage, reproduce, and raise their young in the many nooks and crannies formed by coral,” the agency said.
More than a source of food and a so-called “new medicine”, NOAA says coral reefs help protect coastlines from erosion and storms as well as provide jobs for local communities.
Despite their importance, the planet’s coral reefs are rapidly being threatened including by coral bleaching. In March, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which manages the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, confirmed a fourth mass bleaching event since 2016.
According to a 2017 fact sheet from GBRMPABleaching is what happens when corals get stressed, get rid of very small photosynthetic algae – called Zooxanthellae – and start starving.
“As the Zooxanthellae leave the coral, the coral becomes paler and increasingly transparent,” it said.
The authority fact sheet cites the most common reason for bleaching as “persistent heat stress, which is becoming more frequent as our climate changes and oceans become warmer.”
While corals can recover from bleaching if conditions change, they can die if things don’t improve.
For its part, Orsted said water temperatures at wind farms located further away from the coast could provide more stability, with “a rise in extreme temperatures” prevented by what it describes. is “vertical mixing in the water column.”
The overarching idea of the ReCoral project is that stabilizing this water temperature will limit coral bleaching ability, enabling healthy coral growth on the turbine platform.
Whether offshore or onshore, the interaction of wind turbines with the natural world – including marine life or birds – is likely to be an area of great debate and discussion in the future.
In April, the US Department of Justice announced that a company called ESI Energy Inc was “committed to three counts of violating the MBTA,” or the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
More broadly, the US Energy Information Administration has said that some wind and turbine projects can lead to the deaths of bats and birds.
It said: “These deaths may contribute to population declines of species also affected by human-related impacts.
