With support from Taronga Zoo and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, scientists from the Smithsonian Institute have gathered billions of sperm samples from the Great Barrier Reef in an attempt to protect threatened marine life and conserve the future of one of Australia’s national treasures.
The technique which uses liquid nitrogen was trialled in Hawaii and the Caribbean by Dr Mary Hagedorn from the Smithsonian Institute.
Dr Rebecca Spindler, from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo, will oversee the sperm bank, the largest of its kind in the world.
"Fortunately the finicky process which involves the dehydration of aquatic cells was very applicable to the Great Barrier Reef environment," Spindler told SBS.
The unique procedure could see coral frozen for thousands of years.
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"Through long and strategic planning we have so far identified six species of coral to cultivate, including the porites cylindrica with eggs the size of dust," said Spindler.
According to Spindler these particular eggs have not been seen for over eighteen years.
The cells will be stored at the Western Plains Zoo coral repository in Dubbo which already holds forty different species.
Pollution, rising water temperatures, sedimentation, oil spills, dredging for coal and ocean acidification are all contributing towards the reef systems decline.
"We lost fifty per cent of the coral last year."
By replenishing the ecosystem with genetic diversity, scientists hope the species at risk of extinction will become more resilient to future challenges.
