Coral Reef Arks

Coral Reef Arks

Coral Reef Arks

A midwater artificial reef technology that increases coral survival, restores biodiversity, boosts climate resilience, and enhances blue economies.

San Diego, CA, USA

USA

Other, including part of a larger organization (please explain below)

Coral Reef Arks is a team of research scientists, product designers, and marketing professionals working with governmental, academic, and nonprofit partners from over 10 countries to develop Arks into a scalable, publicly accessible restoration tool.

Coral reefs are among the most biodiverse and economically valuable ecosystems, supporting over 500 million people globally through food security, coastal protection, and livelihoods. However, they are rapidly declining, with over 50% already lost and projections indicating up to 90% loss by 2050 without intervention. In the communities where we currently work—Curacao, Madagascar, and Puerto Rico—reef degradation is already causing significant harm. In Curacao, where reefs generate 80% of tourism revenue, coral cover has declined by 40%, threatening the local economy. In Madagascar, where 90% of the population depends on reef fisheries for protein, reef loss exacerbates food insecurity and accelerates coastal erosion. In Puerto Rico, hurricanes have destroyed nearly 50% of coral cover, increasing vulnerability to storms. Traditional restoration efforts, which focus on transplanting nursery-reared corals, have high failure rates (e.g., >50% mortality after 3 years and 90% mortality after 12 years; Casey et al., 2015; Palomar et al., 2009) as they typically place corals directly on degraded seafloor substrates (characterized by poor water quality and pathogenic bacteria). Further, most programs focus only on the corals, leaving out necessary elements to restore the reef community and thus their essential ecosystem services.

​Coral Reef Arks are suspended geodesic structures designed to restore coral ecosystems by creating midwater habitats that support diverse marine life. Unlike traditional restoration methods that place corals on degraded seafloor substrates, Arks float in the water column, providing an optimal environment for coral growth and survival. Furthermore, we use a technology, called ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures), that aggregates millions of reef species onto one-square-foot structures. Like building blocks, ARMS can be used to seed Coral Reef Arks to assemble diverse reef communities. By combining the Ark and ARMS technologies, we are able to increase the efficacy of coral reef restoration and ensure a functionally diverse and resilient ecosystem. The technology behind Coral Reef Arks includes biomimetic fractal-based designs, inspired by natural structures to optimize surface area for coral attachment and water flow. They are made from durable, non-toxic materials that encourage coral settlement and can be adjusted or relocated as environmental conditions change. Deployments in Curacao and Puerto Rico have demonstrated that Arks generate immediate economic benefits in the form of fisheries, carbon sequestration, environmental mitigation, and tourism. Overall, Arks provide a scalable, adaptable solution to reef restoration, able to support conservation, fisheries, and coastal protection efforts worldwide.

Coral Reef Arks serve coastal communities, marine industries, and scientific institutions by restoring reef ecosystems, supporting local economies, and advancing marine research. In communities threatened by coral reef degradation, Arks provides the benefits of enhanced fisheries, food security, carbon sequestration, conservation of biodiversity, and coastline protection (see armsrestore.com as an example of a community-implemented Arks project in Madagascar that aims to identify the impacts of the Arks technology across ecological health, fisheries production, and human health outcomes). Beyond direct community benefits, Arks serve as a mitigation tool for local governments and private contractors conducting marine development or cleanup efforts. In Puerto Rico, Arks have been tested as a strategy to offset habitat disruption from underwater munitions removal. This model can be expanded to coastal infrastructure projects and environmental restoration initiatives worldwide. Additionally, Arks provide a powerful research platform for the scientific community. Their controlled yet naturalistic conditions offer a unique opportunity to test coral resilience strategies and ecosystem restoration techniques. While our current deployments highlight immediate local benefits, Coral Reef Arks are designed to serve as a global restoration tool, scalable for diverse communities affected by coral reef loss.