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BIOROCK ARKS: THE LAST HOPE FOR CORAL REEFS

GOVERNMENTS CONDEMN CORAL REEFS TO DEATH

Coral reefs have been sentenced to death by the abject failure of the world’s governments to control greenhouse gas emissions and refusal to stabilize CO2 at safe levels. 2010 had record high temperatures and record coral death from heat stroke, along with the previous record, 1998. The years to come will be hotter. Almost all remaining coral reefs are now doomed to die from high temperatures in a few more years. Hot air from governments, agreeing only to talk more later, is too little and too late to make any difference in imminent global warming-caused mass extinction of coral reefs and their natural ecological and economic benefits.

BIOROCK CORAL REEF ARKS: THE LAST HOPE

The last remaining hope now is to grow as many Biorock Coral Reef Arks as fast as possible. Corals on Biorock reefs grow 2-6 times faster than normal and have up to 50 times higher survival following severe heat shock, depending on species and conditions. Biorock reefs rapidly build up huge fish populations, and quickly grow back severely eroded beaches. NO other method of reef restoration can do this. GCRA and its local partners are already growing around 80% of all reef building coral genera and around half of all reef building coral species in hundreds of projects in more than 20 countries. But due to lack of funding, these are too small to save more than a few small patches, and will not be sufficient to save coral reef biodiversity from mass extinction by global warming or grow back coral reefs, fisheries, and beaches where they are most critically needed by the people for whom healthy reefs are a matter of life or death.

COMMUNITY BASED ACTION IS ESSENTIAL BECAUSE OTHERS WON’T

Only direct action by communities to grow their corals faster and more resistant to environmental stress can now make a difference to save what little biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, beaches, and shore protection is left, and restore what has already gone. The world’s governments, international funding agencies, and big international conservation NGOs (BINGOs) have completely failed to slow down the decline, and have no strategy at all for restoration of what has already been lost. These groups constantly use beautiful coral reef photos to raise funding that they waste on more public relations gimmicks, but they have no clue how to grow reefs back, or even realize what we have already lost. GCRA knows because we have the world’s largest collection of reef photographs from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, and we developed the methods used worldwide to predict coral mortality from high temperatures and high nutrients.

GCRA IS READY TO WORK WITH ALL SERIOUS PARTNERS TO SAVE AND RESTORE REEFS, FISHERIES, BEACHES, AND LOW LYING COASTS

GCRA researchers developed Biorock technology to restore marine ecosystems and their ecological services, and, along with our specially trained partners, is the only group in the world that can do so. We are ready to work with all serious local partners to save their coral reefs, oyster reefs, saltmarshes, seagrasses, and beaches, and to develop sustainable mariculture, if funding can be found. GCRA is blacklisted by funding agencies, governments, and international organizations for telling the truth about their complicity in the disastrous reef collapse that is already largely over. Only locally raised funding or private donations from concerned individuals can make a difference, because policy makers and big funders refuse to. But we have been forced to work for over 20 years with almost no money due to the total lack of interest of policy makers, funding agencies, and BINGOs in serious environmental restoration.

HELP IS READY, BUT FUNDING IS NONEXISTENT

We can’t help reefs and the people who need them without YOUR help! We urgently need serious local partners who realize that only their own direct action can make a difference, because waiting for policy makers and funding agencies to understand what is happening is a sure recipe for certain disaster. And we critically need donations from people who care about preserving and restoring nature to allow us to help those who need it most, especially communities whose reefs are dead, who are hungry because their fish are gone, and who are about to become climate refugees because their islands and low lying shores are washing away. This is the last chance: there is absolutely NO time to waste, because what has already happened is trivial compared to what lies immediately ahead.