They make up less than 1 percent of the earth’s surface but provide a home for around 25 percent of all the world’s marine life. Coral serves in many ways as an accurate indicator of the health of the planet. As sea levels have risen and fallen over the millennia, coral reefs have kept pace (with water depth) naturally and formed crucial coastal protection areas around thousands of islands, reducing wave impacts and erosive forces by up to 97 percent. This has led to over half a billion people settling, thriving, and living in coastal communities reliant on these barrier effects and the food sources that the reefs sustain.

Coral reefs are also important in relation to climate stability and have been in equilibrium for millennia by fixing carbon to the seabed and releasing carbon through respiration. Too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can lead to ocean acidification which dissolves the minerals used by corals and other animals to build their skeletons. In addition, coral bleaching is a stress response that corals experience when the water is too warm; rising ocean temperatures are causing corals to bleach by the loss of ‘temperature stressed’ symbiotic algae, essential for the growth of coral, leaving and turning the corals white. As global warming and climate change become increasingly dangerous for so many reasons, it is more imperative than ever that the world needs to find new and impactful solutions.

So apart from reducing carbon dioxide levels by replacing fossil fuel energy sources, how do reefs and offshore wind interact?

After 25 plus years of successful offshore wind turbine operations, the pioneering old turbine technology is now being replaced with bigger and more productive machines through decommissioning and recommissioning. Developers are also looking for new safe, sustainable and productive sites to place these turbines and are increasingly now looking at the tropics like the Philippines, Colombia and parts of Australia as well as small island communities working to tackle climate change as many of them are on the front line of its effects.

Offshore sub-sea structures naturally colonise with local marine species over time and as they do, many of the original offshore wind foundations now provide rich marine life communities in the form of artificial reefs. For example, the temperate coral species Caryophyllia smithii has now been found in the North Sea growing on a shipwreck, discovered during development of the world’s largest offshore wind projects at Dogger Bank. Structures in the water can provide a habitat for species potentially lost due to previous over-fishing and trawling. As the next 10 years are likely to bring a big increase in recommissioning, the importance and understanding of artificial reefs and their benefit will be increasingly important.

As new tropical offshore wind sites around the world are developed to provide non-fossil fuel alternatives to a new spectrum of energy users. We must ensure that coral reefs are understood and protected at all times. There can be a win-win-win for the environment, energy generators, and local communities. There will always be development, technical, political and economic challenges to overcome, but at CoralPoint we are working hard to sustain and promote reefs whilst advancing the fight against climate change.

To that end, we are proud to announce our membership of #1% for the Planet today, where we commit to 1 percent of all CoralPoint’s net revenue being verifiably donated to the following impact areas:

• Rights to nature;
• Resilient communities;
• Just economies; and
• Conservation and restoration projects such as in coral and reef research across the world.

As we grow our business, we will give more details on these efforts and how you can also get involved.