BioRock Survey: Chewang Site, Thailand

If you have been following us from the beginning, you know about our posts on the BioRock projects. If you are one of our newer readers, let me quickly explain what these are. The primary focus of coral restoration in the South Pacific area, these are spheres of re-bar where low electrical currents are being passed through them. These rebars are a platform where the corals are growing and encrusting on during the passage of this low current. In a short period, the corals grew at a abnormal rate, faster than expected, and posed higher resistance to climate change. Here is what the founders of BioRock.net have said about their BioRocks:

• Enhanced growth rates of the salvaged corals were monitored and documented.
• Survival of corals on Biorock Reef Structures exceeded the survival of corals on adjacent natural coral reef formations under severely degrading environmental conditions.
• Biorock Reef Structures immediately became integrated, living parts of their marine environment, providing additional substrata available and conducive to further natural settlement of wild corals.
• Biorock Reef Structures have been termed “Coral Arks”, which ultimately hold promise to augment repopulating of corals on natural reefs that have suffered degradation and devastation from numerous human related and natural causes.

You can find their photos here, here, here, and here.

Now, while searching for updates on their work, I came across Thailand’s Chewang BioRocksite. They too have been working on restoring their parts of the ocean, and have documented their efforts through a couple of surveys. One of them concentrates on the Chewang coral reef. This survey includes an amazing pictorial, which you can see here. It is really gratifying to see projects like this take shape and continue to progress. Thailand’s BioRock site even added:

Biorock® coral reef projects exist in over 15 countries worldwide and represent the only restoration method known that can sustain and grow natural coral species using only basic elements. These incredible structures not only grow with time but also assist damaged coral in healing while increasing growth rates up to 5 times faster than normal.

If you have the opportunity, please spread the word and show your support for endeavors such as this. We can only benefit from organizations such as BioRock. Only through progress and knowledge that we can save our reefs from inevitable extinction.