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Reverse Coral Reefs

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So, according to the infallible [bs0], the Great Barrier Reef arose because coral that had started in shallow water had to grow upwards as seal evils rose.

This suggests that we should be able to create new reefs in warm oceans that are already too deep to harbour corals. First, we anchor some floating platforms to the sea floor with cables, adjusting the length of the cables so that the platforms are only a few metres below the surface. We seed these with coral, and wait until it has grown a metre or so tall. At this point, we start reeling the cables in by a few centimetres per year, always keeping one step ahead of the coral which will be forced to grow ever upward.

Eventually, the platforms will reach the sea floor, at which point additional weight can be added to hold them in place and - gadulka! - a new coral reef!

MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 14 2020

What [bs0] says must be so. Great_20Barrier_20Reef_20Refugium
[MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 14 2020]

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       Coral reef farming. Ah-ite. I'll bun.   

       Could we do the inverse and start putting some useless desert valleys to work growing coral reefs by filling them up as the coral grows?   

       'Cause screw the desert, am I right? <-- (not a joke)
doctorremulac3, Feb 14 2020
  

       Food currents, needed minerals. This idea is going to have to pick only the most hardy corals with exceptional colonizing skills.Well, initiatially anyway.   

       On second thoughts the platforms could be designed to be an ocean coral placenta supplying nutrients and initial protection
wjt, Feb 15 2020
  

       Would it not be better simply to sink Australia as an artificial reef ?   

       Benefits: No more bushfires; replace the Great Barrier Reef as an aquatic habitat; end unpleasant exports (Foster's lager etc.); eliminate many dangerous and venomous species (Funnel-web spiders, brown snakes, saltwater crocs, etc.).
8th of 7, Feb 16 2020
  

       //according to the infallible...//   

       I'm adding that to my C.V.   

       This is doubleplusgood, since the whole process is a complicated solar-powered way of precipitating carbon(ate) out of the ocean, shifting the atmospheric carbon/dissolved carbon/solid carbon equilibrium in favor of rock. Which will please some.
bs0u0155, Feb 16 2020
  

       I want to see a coral reef on the back of a two-mile-wide animatronic turtle which slooowly walks North along the sea-floor to keep the coral reef at optimal water temperature.
sninctown, Feb 16 2020
  

       I suspect that once you achieve a certain height of coral, the platform will become top-heavy and exhibit a preference for being the other way up. Which might not be ideal, although a work-around may be possible.
Furthermore, as accretion continues, at some point the weight of the reef will exceed the buoyancy of the platform, at which point the entire thing will descend to the sea-floor.
Loris, Feb 17 2020
  

       Well, if coral is not willing to make the effort to evolve buoyancy, then frankly it can go rot.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 17 2020
  

       //weight of the reef will exceed the buoyancy of the platform//
So invert the system; buoyant (enough to support the "finished" weight) "pods" at the surface (anchored to the sea floor) and the growing platform hangs below them, slowly lowering.
neutrinos_shadow, Feb 17 2020
  

       //sink Australia... Benefits://
Also gets rid of the pest species like rabbits, Australians, cane toads...
neutrinos_shadow, Feb 17 2020
  

       Seal evils? Anagram?
po, Feb 17 2020
  

       No - the rise in seal evils is one of the major threats posed by climate change.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 17 2020
  

       Surely something can be done to limit the number of seals - if everyone clubs together ?
8th of 7, Feb 17 2020
  

       //Seal evils? Anagram?//   

       Max has been consistently worrying about the threat of rising seal evils since at least 2009. (See - "top to bottom energy". There may have been earlier mentions, since deleted.)
Loris, Feb 18 2020
  

       Seal evils, predictably, worry isolated island communities the most.
bs0u0155, Feb 18 2020
  

       Hmmm, "Reserve Choral Riffs" ?   

       Sounds like something backing singers would do ....
8th of 7, Feb 18 2020
  

       This should be done in the Venice lagoon.   

       First, carefully move all the buildings to a parking lot in Treviso. Then grow the reef. Then put the buildings back on top, and start scuba-diving among the foundations of St Mark's. Watch out for sudden punt-poles.
pertinax, Apr 13 2020
  

       Clean waters at the edge of a sh.., I mean city, will take both technology and behavioural changes.
wjt, Apr 13 2020
  

       We think you'll eventually identify the main problem as "The wrong sort of Italians" ....
8th of 7, Apr 13 2020
  


 

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