A Coral Reef Revival | The Atlantic

David Vaughan works on the Florida Reef Tract, the third largest coral reef in the world and a vastly important ecosystem for sustaining underwater life. He and a team of scientists are working to combat the crisis in the world’s coral reefs-that is, that human beings have lost 25 to 40 percent of the world’s corals in recent decades due largely to seawater temperature rise and continued acidification of the ocean. Vaughan has developed a technique called “micro-fragmenting” that allows corals to grow more than 25 times faster than normal, which could rapidly restore the dwindling population of healthy coral reefs. The Atlantic went inside the Mote Tropical Research Laboratory in Summerland Key, Florida, where Vaughan is the executive director, to uncover how the process works and understand how much hope there is to reverse the damage caused by humans.
Subscribe to The Atlantic on KZbin: bit.ly/subAtlanticYT

[@shaheerrahman4278]

i wanna give this man a hug. passion like this is what keeps society flowing.

[@thepoopkingdom5389]

Shaheer Rahman Yes

[@ranchothedog]

exactly! Me too :)

[@kevinkane1405]

“Planting a million corals in our life time” What a beautiful thing to be able to say. Thank you for all you have done. I hope to one day be able to say that myself

[@NurchinsCryptids]

Possibly the most heart warming article I've ever seen

[@leoneverest]

"WHY AREN'T WE FUNDING THIS?!?"

[@NOMADdaf]

Whats to fund? Just start breaking up reefs.

[@apdroidgeek1737]

Cuz it doesnt benefit us directly

[@bavondale]

What's keeping you from funding it? Or are you saying that everyone should be forced to fund it?

[@overover..]

Because Trump fired the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and replaced him with an oil lobbyist

[@SharkyCartelRailroad]

It’s so sad that these beautiful underwater jungles are getting destroyed and the government are doing nothing about it. Thank you for doing this, we need more people like you.

[@SignOfTheTimes008]

Problem is governments don't give a shit until they are hassled to death by overwhelming amounts of people.

[@Iceify_]

The United States could’ve done a better job of preventing the disease that killed off a lot of coral (they couldn’t solve global rising water temps)

[@Grayr]

Крутой дед, делает всё чтобы кораллы жили, и делает с душой. Смотрел видео без остановки потому что был вовлечён. Успехов в этом деле этим учёным и по больше таких сюжетов на Ютубе. Спасибо

[@eddiediederich7244]

Wish I could LOVE this video instead of like.

[@azlannakamoto7913]

a man with a purpose to save our planet. truly amazing

[@skyfsa]

God bless you sir, I'm a hobbiest and love my corals fragging and nurturing almost dead corals from petshops back to health is just incredible. Thank you for your important work and an amazing discovery you made.

[@meljohnmateo1847]

It takes a decade to grow corals fully,That's why Im very thankful that he cares for it,absolutely for us.It's for new gen people

[@darwingaring1644]

This is amazing. It's really a good news for us humans that we still have hope to save our ocean by saving our reefs

[@funny-video-YouTube-channel]

*Beautiful science.* It's like the invention of the sea forestry. We must protect coastal areas from commercial fishing, because that is where most of the marine life is growing and developing, till it can move to the open ocean.

[@c4snipar]

This guy and whoever’s doing this, you guys are hero’s!

[@ClickClacksRcs]

Robbin Williams is that you

[@pinegd1]

Dr. Vaughan is brilliant and dedicated. He was the inspiration for starting ReefCells.org 30 years ago.

[@StanislavJavorsky]

When you hear about this kind of sucess and human`s empathy to the nature, it returns your belief in humanity! Thank all the people,who made its real. You are GREAT!

[@Lugmillord]

The world needs more people like him. Too bad humans are better at destroying things than rebuilding them :(

[@ranchothedog]

Thank you so much for doing what you do!

[@avianmotors]

Are you selecting for coral that survives high water temperature?

[@rangerpotato]

mad respect for this guy

[@KaltrinaDemiri]

We need to take care of our planet and the species on it like this guy is..

[@mrwaldoful]

live this man for what he does

[@kreganf]

Good the hell on that man, seriously good freaking work people

[@CoreChamber]

So nice to hear good news from time to time.

[@moumous87]

Bless you David Vaughan

[@Mygreengummybear]

Where can I donate?

[@Mygreengummybear]

Thanks!

[@anusha4505]

Michael Amabile is this the real link? I can't see where they have mentioned.

[@llx3559]

@@anusha4505 I'm pretty sure its the real link at 7:20 you can see the cooler says mote

[@anusha4505]

LLX ! Oh Ok.. good observation .

[@tyn999]

I'm happy for your success! And thanks for your amazing work!

[@kissatamai7143]

Good job!!!!!not anyone would have done this. THANKS

[@christopherg.9954]

Thank you for doing what you do and for such a wonderful discovery.

[@chir0pter]

wow that line about taking Elkhorn Coral off the endangered species list in a few years for $10m...amazing!

[@Charliemmag]

Thank YOU, Sir!

[@uckyl13]

Thank you

[@santiagopineda8467]

This is amazing! I am sooo happy about this

[@ericolsen9799]

Epic. Thank you.

[@Hannahberry93]

Heck yeah!!! This guy is amazing

[@armandoloya4190]

It is truly amazing what they are doing to help the earth an to see what they do on a daily basis they inspire me to proceed in my dream also to study in biology an science an also maybe in the future also be apart of this project .

[@calireeflife8330]

Awesome Video!

[@Bluetangg]

Amazing work. Great example of how critical thinking applies to science and any problem solving. That and looking for what is true instead of what fits someone’s world view.

[@geofflee216]

The guy is living my dream

[@dperc3024]

This guy 💙🙌

[@Jb-qn2xz]

Good job you "discovered" how to frag corals like hobbyist reefers have been doing for the past 40 years... But excellent job though on reef restoration that is awesome of you.

[@ChrisExploresLife]

Couldn't have said it better 🙌

[@ellu999]

I'm always surprised by the dislikes on videos like this. What could be the reason to dislike so passionate and positive videos? I do realize that there might be an actual reason to dislike a video like this, I just want to know what it is..

[@natesaquatics4713]

Amazing!

[@wm99914]

Incredible

[@StNovaSt]

This is good and he is to be commended. Let's also commend the thousands of reef tank keepers who have been doing this kind of culturing and growing of corals as well as the hundreds of people in the indo Pacific that do this type of growth and propagation daily. The major issue for the atlantic is the diversity. Not sure why we cant cross some species over from the Pacific that's doing better into the Atlantic.

[@puzhao1639]

Respect

[@Zappyguy111]

Wow, I want to get back into Aquaculture now...

[@razmig]

I want to work for this man.

[@honeybhosle6612]

I want to work like them for the environment

[@TheEnglishLongbow]

So, if corals die off, why is it that coral fragments reseeding will grow new reefs in the same area as the die-off happened? If the reason for the die-off is increased acidity and/or temperature, then aren't those conditions still the same when the habitat is reseeded?

[@chir0pter]

the actual reason why the Caribbean corals died off was mostly nutrient pollution and bacteria (Serratia) from untreated human sewage infecting corals. we've gotten better about treating sewage so now coral in the Caribbean has a better chance

[@dluber1]

Hopefully when our society recovers from our current madness and we have sensible people running things, we'll tax the heck out of billionaires and Wall St and fund thousands of people like Dr. Vaughan to help repair our broken planet, so future generations will have one to live on.

[@JOAOPENICHE]

deja vu

[@w8stral]

So, you need to add coral eating fish back to the oceans to stimulate massive growth. How they probably got so numerous and prolifically large to begin with.

[@Chris.Davies]

OK, so I have seen some really bad ways to try and recover coral - and this isn't one of them! Now, if only you can find a way to plant them efficiently, you'd be onto a really valid solution!

[@cmeyerowitz]

I saw somewhere else the use of trickle current which saved replanted Coral during repeat bleaching event in 2016, abd wanted to know if this is being done in Florida too

[@coreyauringer2271]

Does this hold true for all coral species? Or is this a special subset?

[@charlottemaytham6550]

wasnt this posted last year?

[@StevenCasteelYT]

Is this process similar to hypertrophy in weightlifting?

[@Stephen-ex8jl]

OMG the ocean looks filthy

[@fillelite]

He looks like a old Conan O'brien.

[@chengasuncion444]

fighting 🙏🙏🙏

[@redsolestar]

Sounded like Steve Buscemi in the beginning and I got confused and scared.

[@romeopaolobargamento4229]

can you teach this to philippines

[@nicacanuto6206]

Hi is there an update to the coralss

[@TheHst001]

how can he not be able to get funding for this, 10 million is nothing.

[@BenYourDealsFinder]

So, if the corals are dying off due to habitat factors, how is replacing them the solution?

[@unrealone1]

Pesticides and chemicals would do more damage that a half degree temp rise.

[@IU-le8sz]

U are human GOD budy

[@awinashrampadarath3163]

How can I help to rebuild te coral reefs where can I sign up?

[@johnwatson401]

apparently there are 36 trolls that watched this video lol

[@forbesart1989]

How can I get involved in the coral replanting?

[@frann8552]

Forbesart19 you can donate money, become a marine biologist or volunteer at these places

[@frann8552]

Forbesart19 or you could also buy a ocean tank and start growing some yourself

[@wokeupat9]

Dreamy Creamy Keemy brought me here

[@jeepsblackpowderandlights4305]

As a reef keeper of corals in fish tanks. I have kept corals just fine at a 7.8 PH, this includes acroporas, stags horns, favias, leathers.. i havent met a coral that cant handle 7.8 ph. I really dont think its the PH thats causing the decline in corals, but more so pollution to be honest.

[@chir0pter]

this is correct. the caribbean coral mostly died off from Serratia marscessens which comes from human sewage

[@oguzvx]

Omh SharkTale Real ???

[@cody5495]

so what your saying, if I dive down and break a bunch of coral reefs they will grow back bigger??!!?

[@leonvetter773]

I hope this works to save coral but the question has to be asked, if global warming and CO2 are killing all of the coral, how are these corals going to survive? Isn't this a futile effort if global warming is going to kill them shortly?

[@nishanthprashanth1088]

Avoid global warming and throwing non bio degradable items into any kind of water bodies and also purify and treat sewage water and industrial water then release them into water bodies

[@josepinchero]

he discusses this at around min 6. it's about finding new species or strains that are more resistant to rising temps and acids and planting those

[@kingasuba709]

[@ivicfrost]

Keep doing this, people need to be aware how our reefs are being destroyed, it pains me that the Notre Dame gets 10mil for a new roof.. What about our oceans? With that money we could remove the garbage pool in the ocean, we need to get down to business to something meaningful.

[@AlGuien82]

I shed a tear while watching this in my SUV with the engine running eating out of single-use plastic containers and drinking straws

[@sophiamartin9298]

He does present some interesting ideas, and yeah, really cool regenerative capabilities. But (1) it doesn't sound like hes testing high temp and co2 levels together, which is crucial because they do interact on coral calcification in a pretty serious way and (2) transplanting large amounts of the same coral into an ecosystem with chronic and acute stressors is an inherently flawed idea because, in theory, they would undergo the same stressors that killed their predecessors. So for what he does to be useful, they would need to be testing for genetic strains that do well under BOTH high co2 and temp such that they could grow quickly enough to sustain reef growth as a whole (i.e. withstand the typically heavy erosion forces associated with reefs, and not just individual coral growth) and also so that they were not under enough stress that that they could not reproduce when the time came (which is definitely a thing for stressed corals). Otherwise what they're doing is not self sustaining in the future. The problem is though, that the phenotypes/genotypes that can survive in high CO2 and temperature levels typically seem to not invest heavily in skeletal growth - instead they seem to invest more in soft tissue growth and/or preserves (e.g. high levels of lipids and proteins in tissues are associated with survival after high temperature events). This means that although they might survive, they are not necessarily able to sustain reef growth as a whole.

[@Max_m]

It’s crazy how many amazing science discoveries have just been pure accident

[@Phangmaster]

Aquarist could have told him this 20 years ago, this is nothing new.

[@moracristalcabrera1600]

gt

[@camilomejia917]

Mora Cristal Cabrera

[@moracristalcabrera1600]

Camilo Mejia

[@moracristalcabrera1600]

Mafat Lal

[@cIoudbank]

I feel like this is only delaying the inevitable, and although this is great to help the ocean won't the reefs die regardless due to global warming?

[@gai_ninja]

Direct sunlight? Only few corals can take direct sunlight. Try to grow water filters, sponge or clams

[@rasputin7633]

The great co2 lie.

[@toomanylayers]

Why did they send him to a psychiatric hospital ?

[@Dirty2D]

Were going to need more people like this.