Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President, Global Coral Reef Alliance

Cost Effectiveness of Coral Reef Restoration:
Biorock® versus NOAA

The US Government Agency NOAA has just issued a press release extolling the great success of their reef restoration project a ship grounding in the Florida Keys:
NOAA: Coral reef successfully restored after 2002 boat grounding in Florida Keys

Some 376 square feet of coral was damaged, and NOAA restored it at a cost of $56,671.27 or $1622.35 per square meter.

In contrast Biorock reef restoration, which unlike NOAA’s methods, greatly accelerates coral settlement, growth, survival, and resistance to environmental stresses including severe high temperatures, costs around $1.60-$2.80 per square meter for restoration not using vertical structures, and up to $13-$20 for reef structures 2 meters high:

WRR Goreau & Hilbertz 2005

That is to say Biorock is hundreds of times cheaper as well as being far more effective.

Results of Biorock reef restoration at a site that was almost barren of live corals and fishes at the time we started can be seen at:

Biorock reef restoration in Pemuteran, Bali, Indonesia, filmed by Rani Morrow-Wuigk for the UN sponsored world-wide TV program One Day On Earth in early 2012, featuring great projects from every country in the world.