August 19, 2020
sprep-pa
When Hanna Koch, coral reproduction scientist at Mote’s Summerland Key facility, talks about spawning, or coral sex, she gets excited. Last year, Koch hit a huge milestone when the first “home-grown” batch of corals produced entirely from Mote’s own restoration broodstock spawned in her lab during the annual August coral spawning event. This summer, she and her team are celebrating another huge breakthrough: for the first time ever documented, Mote’s restored coral colonies have become parents out on the reef.
