03/09/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/09/2024 18:25
Contact:
Link to video and sound: https://go.hawaii.edu/S8a
WHAT: A milestone in the University of Hawaiʻi Rapid Resilient Reefs for Coastal Defense (R3D) project to create a living breakwater system, inspired by natural reefs, to protect coastlines from erosion, while also creating ecosystems where coral and other ocean life will grow and thrive.
The project is funded by a $27 million, 5-year award from the U.S. Department of Defense through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
WHO:Applied Research Laboratory at UH (ARL at UH), UH Mānoa's School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST): Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) and Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering in partnership with University of California San Diego / Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Florida Atlantic University, Ohio State University and our industry partner Makai Ocean Engineering located here in Hawaiʻi.
PROJECT MILESTONE: The completion of the first concrete reef prototype that feature large holes to dissipate wave energy and are designed to promote coral growth. Full production on 60 units is underway.
WHEN: In late 2024, early 2025, a 50-meter array of the reef structures will be deployed near Ulupaʻu crater, located on the Kailua Bay side of Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi.
WHERE: The concrete structures are being constructed at two precast concrete yards in Kapolei on Oʻahu. The climate-resilient corals were bred and coral settlement modules were designed at HIMB at Moku o Lo'e in Kāneʻohe Bay.
WHY: The goal of the living breakwater system is to counter the impact of climate change and warming ocean temperatures that are killing the world's reefs, which play a critical role in coastal protection and ocean ecosystems, a major source of food and shelter.
ADDITIONAL INFO:
B-ROLL (1 minutes, 50 seconds)
SOUNDBITES:
Ben Jones, Applied Research Laboratory at UH Director of Ocean Science and Technology (:17)
"The rapid resilient reefs for coastal defense project is a project that aims to really redesign how we do coastal protection. So, specifically, we're looking at how to engineer a living breakwater system to protect coastlines."
Jones (:12)
"This is an opportunity to kind of reinvent how we protect the coast. And at the same time, encourage the ecosystem to recover and to even thrive."
Zhenhua Huang, UH Mānoa Ocean and Resources Engineering Professor (:20)
"This is a really great project, a true interdisciplinary project. So I myself am a coastal engineer. Now, I'm working with marine biology. This is a totally different field. So, we work together to achieve this common goal that is to come up with a solution that is nature based."
Robert Toonen, UH Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology research professor (:12)
"The adaptive biology part of it is focused on how we get corals onto the structure that are going to survive marine heat waves and future climate change."
Joshua Madin, UH Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology research professor (:15)
"We put out these structures with special crevices and cracks and crannies that we've noticed through multiple generations of design that coral babies just love. We kind of reverse engineered the reef to find out what they love about the reef."