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From: esgbs@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (GARY STANDEN)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,alt.aquaria,sci.environment
Subject: Re: coral reefs, C02, food, and farming.
Message-ID: <1990Dec5.131807.5945@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>
Date: 5 Dec 90 13:18:07 GMT
References: <720@sierra.stanford.edu> <CMCCAFF.98Dec2135419@thrumble.urbana.mcd.mot.com>
Reply-To: esgbs@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Lines: 39
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.3-4

In article <CMCCAFF.98Dec2135419@thrumble.urbana.mcd.mot.com>, cmccaff@urbana.mcd.mot.com (Chuck McCaffrey) writes...
>In article <720@sierra.stanford.edu> rosentha@sierra.Stanford.EDU 
>(Peter A. Rosenthal) writes:
> 
><<Interesting speculations about coral reefs as a natural sink for
>over-abundant CO2 deleted.>>
> 
>	   If one could float large substrates out in the open ocean several
>   meters below the surface, and properly seed them, I would bet that
>   reefs would grow very well on them provided they were located in a
>   stable, well lit, clean place.  Coral occupies only a small area on
>   the planet presently;  I wonder how many square miles?  How difficult
>   would it be to double the area artificially? 
> 
>	   Coral reef farms of this sort would also be a great sustainable
>   food source for humanity as well as the rest of the world.
> 
>____
> 
>Very interesting idea, one that had not occurred to me.  My questions are:
> 
>1) How large are the "large substrates"?
> 
>2) How do we make the "large substrates"?  What do we make them of?
>Will their manufacture cause, in and of itself, a large release of 
>CO2 or pollutants?
> 
>3) Will the installation disrupt anything that should not be disrupted?
> 
>Still, an idea worth considering, along with, naturally, decreasing
>the amount of CO2 we cavalierly dump into the ecosphere.
>--
>  \Chuck McCaffrey cmccaff@urbana.mcd.mot.com 1101 E University Urbana IL 61801
>   \    Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight,    [my words]
>    \   Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight,  [my opinions]
>   / \   And for each and every underdog soldier in the night,
>  /   \    And we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing.
 The best idea would be to sink old ships. This makes a good platform for 
coral life. Look at most of the reefs today they have incrusted old ships.


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