Abstract Summary
This year, Australia embarked on a bold project: to create an innovative suite tools that can be rolled-out at the scale needed to help preserve and restore the Great Barrier Reef. They must be targeted, affordable, risk-assessed and socially and ethically acceptable. These methods all have one thing in common, their deployment means an action undertaken or product deployed onto the reef. And in a system of thousands of reefs, thousands of square kilometres of coral and billions of corals this presents daunting challenge. Many of the interventions assessed rely on an ability to undertake large scale aquaculture and reseeding, to collect and redistribute larvae or adult corals or to deploy treatments onto existing corals. What scale might be required, and how solvable is the “scale” challenge, is it so ridiculous that we should stop now before we even start? The massive nature of the reef works in our favour, leveraging connectivity, natural variability, heritability and other reef mechanisms to guide where and how we deploy will reduce the quantities required. Piggybacking methods into the same deployment action, combinations and sequencing of methods to build synergies will all further reduce the required deployment scale. The RRAP program has then explored how methods might be scaled to meet the residual requirements using modern mass production and manufacturing methods. Concept designs have been developed and value engineering methods applied to test what could be delivered with current technology and methods along with where breakthroughs would provide the highest benefits. Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program leader David Mead will present an overview of the method applied, key findings and future plans.
