Surprise rescue of Jamaica coral reefs shows nature can heal

摘要

Everton Simpson steers his motorboat to an unmarked spot in the Caribbean that he knows as the "coral nursery." "It's like a forest under the sea," he says, before swimming down 25 feet carrying a pair of metal shears, fishing line and a plastic crate. On the ocean floor, small coral fragments dangle from suspended ropes, like socks hung on a laundry line. Simpson and other divers tend to this underwater nursery as gardeners mind a flower bed — painstakingly plucking off snails and fireworms that feast on immature coral. When each stub grows to about the size of a human hand, Simpson collects it in his crate to individually "transplant" onto a reef, a process akin to planting each blade of grass in a lawn separately.