2021

Coral sediment dredging must stop during bleaching events

Sediment dredging is killing corals and must stop during bleaching events Caption: Coral reef sediment dredging in the Maldives, seen in this satellite image, leaves long plumes of fine sediments that smother and eventually kill corals. The plume, larger than most...

MALDIVES DREDGE DUMPING ON CORAL REEFS STOPPED BY INJUNCTION

MALDIVES DREDGE DUMPING ON CORAL REEFS STOPPED BY INJUNCTION A massive Maldives project to dump dredged material on top of reefs to create artificial islands has been stopped for the first time by a Maldives Court Injunction, due to lack of scientifically sound...

HOW MUCH FASTER CAN BIOROCK INCREASE CORAL GROWTH?

GCRA WHITE PAPER HOW MUCH FASTER CAN BIOROCK INCREASE CORAL GROWTH? Thomas J. F. Goreau December 10 2023 Record fast coral growth enhancement under Biorock electrical stimulation of up to 4.126 times faster in diameter, 20.7488 times faster in length, and 353.225...

BIOROCK CORALS GROW MORE THAN 20 TIMES FASTER

Measurements of the length and width of Acropora coral branches in Java, Indonesia, show that Biorock corals grew 20.7488 times faster in length and 4.126 times faster in thickness than control corals (Nugroho, Zuhry, Kusnandar, Simanjuntak, Alamsyah, & Karissa,...

REAL AND FAKE CORAL REEF RESTORATION (UPDATED)

BIOROCK coral reef (top), concrete artificial reef (bottom), North Bali. The photographs above, from the original posted version of a recent article "Artificial coral reefs showing early signs they can mimic real reefs killed by climate change"...

Biorock grows back shallow reef crest in Saint Barthelemy

Three power point presentations showing the Biorock coral reef projects in Saint Barthelemy were presented to the IFRECOR (the French National Agency that funds coral reef research in the French Overseas Territories of the Caribbean, Pacific, and Indian Ocean)...

The Coral Builder

The Coral Builder. Corals are dying all over the world. Tom Goreau wants to save them: He builds artificial reefs in the sea and electrifies them. The animals should grow faster on it - and defy the climate crisis.  

Saving Coral Reefs From Extinction, June 4 2023, 2PM EST

JUNE 4 2023   2PM EDT To hear recording of talk click here: https://youtu.be/hWV8PG9lKP4 Coral reefs, the most temperature sensitive ecosystem, have already largely died from global warming and will be the first to go functionally extinct from global warming...

Biorock grows back Saint Barthelemy reefs: 2023 CRES Report

Reporte de Visita Arrecifes BioRock, isla de San Bartolomé en el Caribe, 2023 (Biorock grows back Saint Barthelemy reefs: 2023 CRES Report). This report by the Coalicion Restauracion Ecosistemas Santurcinos (Puerto Rico) describes the most successful coral reef...

Maldives can build it’s own future with Biorock Technology

February 6, 2023 MALDIVES CAN BUILD ITS OWN FUTURE WITH BIOROCK® TECHNOLOGY Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance & Chief Scientist, Blue Regeneration SL Biorock technology is a crucial life-enhancing, island-building technology that...

Maldives coral reefs damaged by dredging

Dredging to create artificial islands just centimeters above sea level is damaging the Maldivian coral reefs that built and protected the islands. Concerned Maldivians point out how the country's future is being sacrificed to short term profit in Open letter to the...

UNFCC COP 27 SACRIFICES CORAL REEFS AND SIDS YET AGAIN

UNFCC COP 27 has sacrificed coral reef ecosystems and Small Island Developing States again by failing to protect them from climate change. Before UNFCC was signed in Rio de Janeiro 30 years ago (1992) I briefed delegates of the Association of Small Island Developing...

Electric Reefs Enhance Coral Climate Change Adaptation

Electric Reefs Enhance Coral Climate Change Adaptation, a chapter by Tom Goreau in the book: Corals - Habitat Formers From the Shallow to the Deep (Giovanni Chimienti, Editor), explains how the Biorock process greatly increases resilience of corals and marine...

Pristine Barbuda imperilled by unsustainable development

Will Luxury Resorts Threaten Caribbean Coasts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bd8wM0ECwc   Barbuda is the last essentially pristine island left in the Caribbean other than uninhabited rocks. Barbuda is too dry for agriculture, so the people are master fishers...

Coral Reef Electrotherapy: Field Observations

This paper presents the first comprehensive review of all visible biological effects of the Biorock electrolysis method of marine ecosystem regeneration that have been seen since the invention of the method in 1976. Extraordinary benefits are seen for the health of...

Hawis Madduppa: In Memoriam

May 15, 2022 In Memoriam Hawis Madduppa March 26 1979 - May 10th 2022  Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Biorock Indonesia and the Global Coral Reef Alliance announce with the greatest sadness the loss of Dr. Hawis Madduppa, leader of...

Support Biorock Indonesia Earth Day Coral Reef Regeneration

Indonesia has the world's largest and most biodiverse coral reefs, but most have been severely damaged. Biorock Indonesia is regenerating coral reefs and fisheries with hundreds of Biorock projects across Indonesia, training communities to regenerate their marine...

MALDIVES BIOROCK: Past results & future applications

Maldives Biorock Figures compressed January 31, 2022 GCRA White Paper MALDIVES BIOROCK: Past results & future applications Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance SUMMARY The Maldivian way of life for more than four thousand years is under...

Save Jamaica’s World Heritage Climate Change Site

SAVE JAMAICA’S WORLD HERITAGE CLIMATE CHANGE SITE Letter to the Jamaica Daily Gleaner and the Jamaica Observer Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Dear Sirs, The Bengal cliff of the Dry Harbour Mountains between Discovery Bay and Rio Bueno...

GCRA 2021 Winter Solstice Report

December 21 2021 GCRA WINTER SOLSTICE REPORT: CORALS, COVID, & CLIMATE CHANGE Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Covid supply chain delays and uncertainty slowed down, delayed, or prevented new Biorock Marine Ecosystem Regeneration...

Robert Kent Trench: In Memoriam

ROBERT KENT TRENCH: IN MEMORIAM August 3 1940 – April 28 2021 Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Bob Trench, as a Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Global Coral Reef Alliance announces with the greatest sadness...

Biorock heals hurricane damaged Jamaican corals

Biorock heals hurricane damaged Jamaican corals October 31, 2021 Thomas J. F. Goreau Thomas P. Sarkisian Sharren Robinson Global Coral Reef Alliance The record long and severe 2020 Hurricane Season spawned two category 5 hurricanes just south of Jamaica, Hurricanes...

IPCC IGNORES CORAL REEF COUNTRIES AGAIN

The 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report is out, and while a clear improvement in recognizing the urgency of future climate change, IPCC unfortunately continues to ignore the fact that coral reefs passed the bleaching tipping point in the...

Prime Movers Lab Webinar – Ocean Technology

Join me and Prime Movers Lab for a discussion about the future of ocean technology and sustainability, including the future of humans living on oceans on June 23 at 3PM EDT. Register at the link below. https://bit.ly/3vQVwhX  

Biorock reefs unaffected by severe bleaching events

Biorock reefs survive repeated severe bleaching undamaged. This one minute video made early in 2021 by Delphine Robbe of the Gili Eco Trust shows a Biorock reef around 17 years old which survived two severe bleaching events undamaged. The staghorn coral growing all...

Robert Kent Trench: In Memoriam

April 28, 2021 The Global Coral Reef Alliance announces with the greatest sadness the death this morning of Professor Robert Kent Trench, the world’s top expert on coral reef symbiosis, and a distinguished member of GCRA’s Board of Directors. We will soon post on the...

Global warming triggers coral reef bleaching tipping point

This article by GCRA's Goreau and Hayes, published in Ambio’s 50th Anniversary Collection on the theme of Climate change impacts presents the first retrospective on global coral bleaching since the publication of their pioneering 1994 Ambio paper on predicting coral...

Global Coral Reef Alliance 2020 Winter Solstice Report

Flattening the CO2 Curve to Save Corals Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance   Large scale death of corals from high temperature, pollution, and disease accelerated in 2020 as a result of fossil fuel-subsidizing policies of the US,...

2020 Global Coral Reef Bleaching Patterns

2020 will be another record year for coral reef bleaching, but there will be almost no field documentation of its global extent and impacts because the Covid epidemic has put a near complete halt to diving. As usual, global news media reported bleaching only in the...

Recorded: Toronto Public Library broadcast about Coral Ghosts

The Live event has concluded: A recorded version of the event can be watched here: Coral Ghosts is a documentary directed by Andrew Nisker that combines six decades of underwater photography archived by Dr. Tom Goreau, a marine biologist with a family history of reef...

BIOROCK SAVES BLEACHING CORALS AGAIN

October 1 2020 Komang Astika & Tom Goreau Biorock Indonesia Pemuteran, Bali, Indonesia Corals growing on Biorock reefs in Indonesia that survived severe 2016 bleaching, and bleached again completely in 2020, have now fully recovered. Bleaching on Biorock was...

Entire Caribbean Sea about to bleach

Coral reefs all across the Caribbean Sea are now at mass bleaching temperatures. Coral mortality will depend on how hot it gets in the coming weeks and for how long. Below is the latest daily Coral Bleaching HotSpot map for the Caribbean (Goreau & Hayes, 1994)....

Are Orcas eating Mediterranean migrants?

  “Rough Play or Bad Intentions? Orca Encounters Off Iberia Baffle Experts”, New York Times, September 20, 2020 reports that a well known school of Orcas (killer whales) whose resident range is around both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar, have suddenly started...

Coral Bleaching HotSpot shows Arctic Ice Death Spiral

    30 years ago we developed the HotSpot method of predicting coral bleaching caused by extreme heat waves, using satellite Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies mapped with regard to the average temperature in the hottest month historically (Goreau &...

Forests, fossil fuels, and coral reefs

The most massive trees and carbon biomass in the world are those in the rainforests of British Colombia, Canada, and some of these most important carbon stores are now slated for destruction in the name of “economic development”, read more in...

First Biorock projects in India

  The first Biorock coral reef restoration projects have been started in India by a team from the Zoological Survey of India, with support from the Gujarat Forestry Department and the Global Coral Reef Alliance.    The scientific team, led by...

Corals Are Our Future Festival in Indonesia, June & July 2020

In the celebration of World Reef Day, World Environment Day, World Ocean Day, and Coral Triangle Day, this time we are supporting Biorock Indonesia, in their event “Corals Are Our Future Festival”.  This festival aims to support the Coral Reef Restoration in...

Covid Halts Dolphin Pollution in Discovery Bay, Jamaica

May 14, 2020 COVID Halts Dolphin Pollution In Discovery Bay, Jamaica Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance   The Covid-19 virus is now helping clean up coastal water quality in Jamaica through a chain of unexpected indirect environmental...

Climate-proofing Coastlines with Biorock Technology

Climate Proofing Beaches and Coastlines with Biorock Technology   https://youtu.be/cv2h8Uv-MEs Biorock Technology grows back severely eroded beaches at record rates by regenerating marine ecosystems and is the most cost-effective solution for protecting...

Great Barrier Reef now at severe bleaching temperatures

The Great Barrier Reef is now at severe bleaching temperatures.   The map below shows the latest Goreau-Hayes HotSpot coral bleaching map for the Great Barrier Reef.    Areas in yellow and orange are above the bleaching threshold. The severity of...

Captive dolphin pollution impacts in Discovery Bay, Jamaica

Thomas J. F. Goreau President, Global Coral Reef Alliance   Discovery Bay is the site of the world’s longest and most detailed scientific studies of coral reef change, going back about 65 years. I have personally been involved in research at Discovery Bay Marine...

GCRA 2019 Winter Solstice Report

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Happy Winter Solstice! Throughout 2019 GCRA continued to work with grassroots local marine environmental protection and sustainable management groups all around the world to maintain existing Biorock...

In Memoriam – Dr. Norman Myers

Dr. Tom Goreau, President of GCRA is sad to note the death of a greatly valued colleague and environmental hero, Dr. Norman Myers, of Oxford University, one of the world’s pioneering experts on species extinction, conservation, deforestation, and impacts of climate...

Corals reefs will be executed by US government policies

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Corals reefs worldwide will be deliberately murdered by today’s announcement of the US government’s withdrawal from international agreements to limit climate change. This comes 30 years after it was shown...

In memoriam – Rani Morrow-Wuigk

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhD President, Global Coral Reef Alliance The Global Coral Reef Alliance, Biorock Indonesia, and Yayasan Karang Lestari are very deeply saddened to announce the death of Rani Morrow-Wuigk. Rani loved Bali, and she especially loved diving and...

Bahamas hurricane destruction

Abaco and Grand Bahama have just been devastated by the Atlantic hurricane with the strongest winds recorded at landfall. The local fishermen have lived there since the 1700s and are used to surviving hurricanes every year, but they have never seen damage from wave...

Stephen Attis – In Memoriam

  The Global Coral Reef Alliance is deeply saddened to report the loss of the head of Vone Research “Diving for Science”. Steve led the heroic crew that built, installed, and maintained the Biorock coral reef at Lauderdale By The Sea.   He was an...

Biorock™ Coral Ark grows elkhorn in Jamaica

Elkhorn coral, Acropora palmata, was the most common coral in shallow Jamaican and Caribbean reefs in the early 1950s until the corals were killed from sewage pollution, global warming, soil erosion, and new diseases. Now it is locally extinct almost everywhere around...

Recharging Indonesian marine biodiversity

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhDPresident, Global Coral Reef AllianceScientific Advisor, Biorock Indonesia Indonesia has the largest and most biodiverse coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrasses of any country in the world. Sadly, all are under severe pressure. Around 95% of the...

Biorock Barong And Rangda reef installed in honor of Agung Prana

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhDPresident, Global Coral Reef AllianceScientific Advisor, Biorock Indonesia The late Agung Prana, a leader of Balinese ecotourism, was commemorated by installation of a Biorock reef shaped like the quintessential Balinese mythological figures,...

Biorock beach regeneration expands

Thomas J. F. Goreau, PhDPresident, Global Coral Reef AllianceScientific Advisor, Biorock Indonesia The severely eroded beach at Pulau Gangga Resort, North Sulawesi, Indonesia that was naturally regenerated at record rates with Biorock Anti Wave (BAW) reefs (Goreau...