In the last decade up to 90 percent of the coral that surrounds many of Okinawa’s islands has died off.
Since 2005, the project has planted around 13,000 pieces of coral, at a cost of some $2 million. Only a third of the coral sprigs transplanted in 2005 have survived.
“Saving the reef is not something that we can do in three to four years,” says Mr. Hirosawa, a preservation officer at the Environment Ministry, “but more like 30 to 40 years.”
Check out the article in the NYTimes.
