Now Reading: NOAA restores deep-sea corals 16 years after oil spill
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NOAA restores deep-sea corals 16 years after oil spill
Sixteen years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, scientists have placed lab-reared corals on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor. In a 2026 mission aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster, divers outplanted 26 mesophotic…
The Story in Brief
Sixteen years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, scientists have placed lab-reared corals on the Gulf of Mexico seafloor. In a 2026 mission aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster, divers outplanted 26 mesophotic corals at a depth of 66 metres using a new device called the 'coral torpedo'. It was the first time scientists outplanted laboratory-grown corals from this depth. The team also reached 72.5 metres, collected samples, and mapped over 14 square nautical miles. NOAA Fisheries calls it a milestone in restoring habitats injured by the 2010 spill.
The Indian Opinion
The painstaking work in the Gulf of Mexico is a reminder that deep-sea damage is not quickly fixed. The common narrative that nature will heal itself if left alone underestimates the complexity of mesophotic ecosystems. Indian readers, familiar with oil spills off our own coast, should watch how many of these 26 transplanted corals survive a year. That number, not the mission's scale, will tell whether restoration is possible at all.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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