He has pioneered a form of “coral IVF” that involves capturing millions of spawn from “heat-tolerant” reproductive coral after it floats to the sea surface or, alternatively, surrounding coral that has withstood a bleaching event with a cone-shaped net. The net functions like a huge “coral condom”.
“If you breed from heat-tolerant corals that can survive heat stress in the laboratory, the larvae of those corals also have higher heat tolerance than the larvae of other corals,” said Harrison.
I had wondered whether it was possible to breed heat-tolerant corals. Glad to see that people are working on it.