How can we save the Great Barrier Reef?

How can we save the Great Barrier Reef?

From CrowdScience by BBC World Service

February 27, 2026 · 26 min

About this episode

This episode explores efforts to protect and restore the Great Barrier Reef through coral breeding and reseeding initiatives.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is one of the richest and most complex natural ecosystems on earth, and it’s home to over 600 species of coral – marine animals that are most closely related to jellyfish. But the coral is under threat, with climate change, ocean acidification and marine heatwaves endangering the reef and the many iconic animals that depend on it. CrowdScience listener Felix, aged 9, wants to know what we’re doing to protect it, and presenter Caroline Steel is on the case. In this special edition of CrowdScience, we follow scientists from Australia’s Institute of Marine Science as they attempt to restore the reef with baby corals that they’ve nurtured in experimental tanks at their Sea Simulator facility on the country’s northeast coast. This experiment kicked off in December, as the researchers recreated the annual mass coral spawning event in controlled conditions, manipulating temperature, pH, light, and nutrients to breed coral baby that they can then use to reseed damaged sections of reef. After loading up a lorry full of corals and waving it goodbye, Caroline heads north for a rendezvous at dawn, as the corals are loaded onto a boat in Cairns. She travels…

People in this episode

Hosts: Marnie Chesterton, Ben Motley

Topics covered

  • Great Barrier Reef
  • coral restoration
  • climate change
  • marine biology

Keywords

  • coral spawning
  • marine heatwaves
  • ocean acidification
  • AIMS

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Sea Simulator

Places: the Great Barrier Reef, Australia, Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Japan

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