Back in 2017, the Florida Aquarium teamed up with the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London to embark on a project to save coral reefs by predictably inducing corals to spawn in the laboratory. This technique had been accomplished by Horniman with Pacific coral species, but Atlantic corals, like the ones populating the Florida Reef Tract, had never spawned anywhere but in the wild.
Now, just under two years later, scientists at the Florida Aquarium have successfully induced the spawning of threatened Pillar coral in the lab for the first time ever. This conservation effort mostly uses innovative lighting technology, but also requires a perfect series of conditions spread out over many months prior to the short spawning moment, which is tied to a particular full moon. We chat with Keri O’Neil, Senior Coral Scientist at the Florida Aquarium, to learn about the project, and what's next.
