Marine biologists paint reefs to revive them

3D printers allowed reefs destroyed by hurricanes Irma and Maria to be decorated with colors not often seen on a natural reef. (Wikimedia Commons)

By The Star Staff

Using 3D printers, marine biologists decided to paint over desolate coral reefs to attract fish and revive them, according to an El País report.

The printers allowed the reefs destroyed by hurricanes Irma and Maria to be decorated with blue, yellow and, back to basics, bright white, colors not often seen on a natural reef.

In Puerto Rico, biologists are installing thousands of artificial corals made from cornstarch using 3D printers to restore reefs in waters off the island’s shores. Scientists from the Marine Environment Society have already installed more than 10,000 artificial corals around the offshore island municipality of Culebra, where coral life was devastated by Irma and Maria in 2017. The island is famous among tourists for its crystal-clear beaches and expeditions to see colorful reefs, which have been severely damaged by coral bleaching, exacerbated by climate change, El País said.

The printed corals measure no more than 60 centimeters, a feature that distinguishes the project, started in 2021, from others that have also used 3D printers, in which the structures are usually the size of a moving box. Its goal is to attract fish and other organisms to revitalize the reef more quickly than natural corals, which can take up to a year to grow enough to become a suitable habitat for marine life.

For now, artificial corals are only found in specific spots on Culebra, such as Punta Tampico and Punta de Maguey, two postcard-perfect paradises, El País said.

For Alex Mercado Molina, the project’s principal investigator, and his colleague Samuel Suleimán Ramos, the idea was to recreate as accurately as possible the coral environment that existed before the destruction caused by the hurricanes, according to El País.

“The biodiversity of the reef has increased since we introduced the artificial corals,” said Mercado Molina, who is also a professor at the University of Puerto Rico in Bayamón. “It’s not just attracting more fish; it’s attracting more types of fish.”

The team analyzed the reef ecosystem under different scenarios and found a significant increase when the transplantation of natural and artificial corals was combined.

The brightly colored corals sparked the curiosity of the fish.

Edwin Hernández Delgado, the researcher in charge of monitoring the fish in this project, said the number of fish more than doubled after the transplantation of artificial corals.