The rapid rise in ocean temperature over the last 20 years has had a significant impact on the health of coral reefs, particularly in the Pacific.
This situation, predictable and long overdue, has taken time to be addressed by governments, including in international agreements where the increase in ocean temperature, and the direct impact on ocean ecosystems, was never clearly at the heart of the priorities.
It was the deployment of applied coral research in the 2030s that prompted the interest of governments in these complex biological groups, whose millennial age has been strongly challenged by human activity.
In fact, just over a decade ago, biotechnology companies have managed to find a way to synthesize coral processes, in particular to apply them to bone reconstruction and to car & self-regenerating building materials.
In the face of the now proven economic interest of coral systems, biotechnology companies have gradually developed ways to grow corals in the laboratory.
For this they relied on the now well-controlled technology of nanorobots to help coral polyps grow faster and establish skeletons of limestone that hosts them more efficiently but also protects them from significant temperature differences.
But it is the commitment and energy of environmental NGOs, which have gained political weight and considerable influence in the institutional corridors, that has brought this technology out of the laboratories and made it available for community research and not exclusively lucrative goals. This new branch of government-funded research, crowdfunding and some private equity funds as part of their social responsibility, has managed to move beyond the patents filed by private companies to finally utilize the technology at home for the benefit of the reconstruction and preservation of natural reefs, so necessary for the survival of island ecosystems such as ours.
The first experiments were recently launched, hope that their success will be fast and sustainable and will finally provide our reefs with the necessary protection for their fight against anthropogenic global warming!