In the early morning, at a lab not too far from the Galveston coast, Shannon Ainsworth is collecting hundreds of tiny, floating brown eggs from a tank of deep-sea coral. She sticks a little plastic dropper into the water, sucks up an egg or two, and deposits them into a beaker on top of the tank. Then she repeats.
The process goes on for several hours until all the eggs in the tank are gone. But that’s just the beginning. The hope is that the eggs will fertilize and then grow—albeit incredibly slowly—into new coral.
Already, some of the tanks in the lab have baby corals, which are growing on tiny rock tiles next to the older, adult coral. The new coral is two years old and the size of a half-fingernail.
“That girl over there,” Ainsworth said, gesturing to a big coral in the back of the tank. “It released over 2000 eggs yesterday. Then we collect them all by hand.”
Ainsworth has been a coral aquarist for almost a year at the Southeast Fisheries Science Center Wet Lab in Galveston with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – a scientific and regulatory agency focused on monitoring weather and oceanic activities. There, she works on the Mesophotic and Deep Benthic Communities – Coral Propagation Technique Development project – which is the long, scientific name for restoring ocean habitats below 164 feet by studying deep-sea coral reproduction.
The work is only one piece of a much larger restoration project, stemming from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the coast of Louisiana, which resulted in the discharge of 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf and the environmental destruction of miles of habitat. About two-fifths of the oil sank to the bottom of the Gulf, contaminating an estimated 770 square miles – an area a bit bigger than the City of Houston – including deep-sea coral communities.
Since 2022, the scientists with the deep-sea coral project in Galveston are studying ways to restore the twelve different coral species from the spill’s damage. For Ainsworth, most days this means collecting eggs, feeding coral, and examining how different species are growing and adapting. Depending on the success of any given technique in the lab, the team could then apply the same technique to the oil spill site.
The work has another benefit too, according to Sasha Francis, gulf restoration education and outreach manager for the project. Unlike the more commonly-known shallow water coral, deep-sea coral is a big mystery in the oceanic world.
“The really impressive part of this is it really hasn’t been done before for these species of corals,” Francis said. “How often do they like to eat? Will they propagate or reproduce in these environments? So the coral labs, along with partner labs, are working together to really have a better understanding of the life cycle.”
There’s a lot more, with some great pictures, so check it out. While the scientists are hopeful about saving the deep sea coral, they’re also learning a ton about it as they go. I wish them all the best