BACOLOD CITY- A team of young Filipinos is using a method that earned them top honors at a competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to hasten coral growth by five times and ensure survival by more than 20 times in a marine reserve in Sagay City, 82.9 kilometers north of here.
The First Step Coral project is funded
with a grant from MIT after winning the grand prize at the noted school’s 5th
Ideas Competition in May 2006 and was launched and pioneered at the Sagay
Marine Reserve in July 2006, said team leader Gerardo Jose La O’, a native of
Negros Occidental and a graduate student in material science at MIT.
The other members of the team are Ilac
Diaz, Martin Lorilla and Emzo delos Santos,
with Dr. Thomas Goreau, who invented BioRock, the method used to hasten coral
growth, as their consultant.
The First Step Coral project aims to
rehabilitate coral reef resources and help increase reef fish populations that
would impact positively on the livelihood of fishing communities dependent on
this vital resource, La O’ said. The BioRock method utilizes low voltage DC
currents to electronically deposit calcium on metallic meshes placed close to
the coral colonies, La O said.
The Mail RSS Feed.
