Dredging covers corals with sand. Coral larvae cannot settle on sand; they can only build on existing reefs or compatible hard surfaces, such as rock or concrete. Because of this, the university decided to relocate some of the coral. They transplanted them with the help of United States Army divers, to a site relatively close to the channel. They observed little if any damage to any of the colonies during transport and no mortality of coral reefs was observed on the transplant site. While attaching the coral to the transplant site, they found that coral placed on hard rock grew well, including on the wires that attached the corals to the site.
Dredging covers corals with sand Coral larvae cannot settle on sand; they can only build on existing reefs or compatible hard surfaces such as rock or concrete Because of this the university decided to relocate some of the coral They transplanted them with the help of United States Army divers to a site relatively close to the channel They observed little if any damage to any of the colonies during transport and no mortality of coral reefs was observed on the transplant site While attaching the coral to the transplant site they found that coral placed on hard rock grew well including on the wires that attached the corals to the site