The world's largest coral reef in breeding season

The Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the world's largest coral reef, has entered the breeding season in 2019.

According to marine biologist Pablo Cogollos of Sunlover Reef Cruises, there was a positive sign for the ecosystem at the Great Barrier on the first night of the coral breeding season.

Corals at the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Following 4 nights of breeding corals after the full moon on the reef, Cogollos researcher said the amount of eggs and sperm appear 3 times more than the breeding season last year. Cogollos said this signaled it would be the largest breeding season in the reef in the past five years.

Coral reproduction is an amazing natural phenomenon, such as fireworks or blizzards in the sea. This phenomenon occurs only once a year under typical conditions, that is after the full moon and the sea temperature of about 27 - 28 degrees C.

This spawning process takes 48 to 72 hours when corals release billions of pink gametes into the water. Each gamet includes spermatozoa. After floating on the surface of the sea, the eggs and sperm grow into larvae and gradually become polyp-like protozoans or join into young coral clusters before sinking to the sea floor for shelter. .

With a length of up to 2,300km, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has for many years been at risk of being wiped out due to climate change resulting in increased water temperature, making many of the largest reefs in the world. This world is bleached.

In 2018, Australian scientists implemented a coral transplant project to save an endangered ecosystem. The scientists collected coral eggs and sperm, then incubated them into larvae in the laboratory and transplanted into damaged reefs to restore them.

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