Fact Friday
Scientists are trying to mitigate the decline of corals. One way to do this is to grow and “plant” them. Coral ecologists grow corals in nurseries created either on land or in the ocean. As with most plants, you can break a leaf off and grow it into a whole new plant. The same process can be used to grow coral. When a piece of a coral is broken off, it can be regrown into another coral, and when they are large enough, they are transplanted from the nursery to the coral reef.
Photo Credit: James Byrne
March 6, 2026
Palolo
You know about mass spawning. Palola viridis is a great example – more than 90% of them breed during the same two-hour window in October. Prior to spawning, each worm modifies its posterior end until it is basically a sack of sperm and eggs. They also grow eyes in this region, so when their back end breaks off, they can find their way toward the surface.
Palolo Worm Life Cycle By Dakuhippo [CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)] 1 December 2011 via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paloloworm_cycle.jpg.
