Coral larvae seed box

00:00-00:04   A close-up of coral branches releasing egg-sperm bundles into the water column.

00:05-00:26   Drone footage over the ocean surface in the early morning showing dense, km-long coral spawn slicks from the previous night’s coral spawning event.

00:27-00:43   Underwater close up of a larval seed box sitting on a sandy sea floor with 100,000’s of coral larvae swimming inside it and settlement tiles deployed outside of it.

00:28-00:52   Time-lapse of drone footage of a small boat on the water’s surface with plumes of pink dye spreading across the water. The dye is rhodamine – a non-toxic tracer commonly used in aquatic systems to study water movement. Rhodamine dye helps show patterns of water flow, along with sensors and drones, because coral larvae are too tiny to see with the naked eye. The dye helps to (i) visualise how long water—and therefore larvae—stay in the area before dispersing, and (ii) track where and how quickly water (and larvae) move after release.

00:53-01:08   A close-up of coral branches releasing egg-bundles into the water column.

01:09-01:22   Night-time with a light shone on the water’s surface showing egg-sperm bundles from coral spawning rising up from the reef to the water’s surface and moving back and forth in the current and waves.

01:23-01:34   A close-up of coral branches releasing egg-sperm bundles into the water column.