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New ways of growing baby corals are bringing life back to fading coral reefs, says Executive Director of Impact at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Theresa Fyffe on the Climate Curious podcast recorded live at TED 2025. From teaming up with First Nations communities, to inviting tourists to play reef gardener by planting baby corals raised in coral micro-nurseries; Theresa shares how growing heat tolerant corals is giving marine ecosystems a second chance.

Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston

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00:00 Introduction to Climate Quickies
00:44 Meet Theresa: reef restoration expert
01:13 Scaling up reef restoration
01:50 The science of propagating corals
02:22 Understanding baby corals
03:12 Theresa’s journey to marine science
04:18 Collaborative reef restoration efforts
05:47 Heat tolerant corals: a solution to warming oceans
07:41 Micro nurseries and community involvement
09:12 Integrating traditional knowledge with modern science
12:05 Conclusion

Transcript

[00:00:00] Introduction to Climate Quickies

[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Quickies Bite-sized nuggets of Climate Goodness. From our TEDxLondon experts in under 10 minutes this week on Climate Curious, we are diving into some good news.

[00:00:14] Ben Hurst: Baby corals are helping bring dying reefs back to life. From heat tolerant corals to coral nurseries, and even frozen coral banks, we are joined by reef expert to reify.

[00:00:26] Ben Hurst: Of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, she’ll share how her [00:00:30] team alongside First Nations communities is working to restore and protect our coral reefs. Let’s head over to Theresa and meet the baby corals. Stay curious.

[00:00:44] Meet Theresa: reef restoration expert

[00:00:44] Maryam Pasha: I’m [00:00:45] very excited for this next conversation here at TED 2025. You’ll know if you’ve listened to the podcast that we are in love with so many of the audacious Prize winners, and our next guest is no exception, Theresa five.

[00:00:59] Maryam Pasha: [00:01:00] You are the executive Director of Impact at the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and you’re also in this year’s audacious cohort. Congratulations.

[00:01:09] Theresa Fyffe: Thank you.

[00:01:10] Maryam Pasha: I want you to tell us about your work. I have so

[00:01:12] Theresa Fyffe: many questions. Absolutely.

[00:01:13] Scaling up reef restoration

[00:01:13] Theresa Fyffe: I think the biggest thing that our work focuses on is doing reef restoration at scale, and just to put it into context at the moment, across all of the world’s oceans, I.

[00:01:24] Theresa Fyffe: There’s about 200,000 corals that are planted in total each year, and most of those corals [00:01:30] don’t survive. And with our work, we’ll be planning around 1.2 million heat tolerant corals, which means that they’ll survive each year starting from about 2030. So we’ll sort of 30 x the current restoration doesn’t, I

[00:01:44] Maryam Pasha: [00:01:45] still

[00:01:45] Theresa Fyffe: feel like I kept mishearing in the talk because that’s an incredible scale up.

[00:01:50] The science of propagating corals

[00:01:50] Theresa Fyffe: It is, and it’s really simple, is the other thing that I say to everyone, because if you think about when you wanna propagate plants, if you were to propagate plants by [00:02:00] just breaking off a piece of plants, sticking it in the ground, it’s gonna take a really long time. If you propagate plants from seed, it’s really fast, right?

[00:02:06] Theresa Fyffe: The way we currently propagate corals. Is break a piece off.

[00:02:09] Maryam Pasha: Okay, grow it,

[00:02:11] Theresa Fyffe: stick it in. We are literally basically using coral spawn [00:02:15] and we can just from that, get millions and millions of coral babies, whereas you can only get one if you do it the old

[00:02:21] Maryam Pasha: way. Please.

[00:02:22] Understanding baby corals

[00:02:22] Maryam Pasha: Let’s talk about these baby corals ’cause they.

[00:02:24] Maryam Pasha: Sound extremely cute and I wanna know about them.

[00:02:28] Theresa Fyffe: They’re very, very, very tiny little [00:02:30] specs initially. You know, when we talk about baby corals, they really, really are these tiny little dots. When you look at them under microscopes, they’re very cute. Um, but corals are all different shapes and so, you know, as.

[00:02:40] Theresa Fyffe: You get to about a 12 month old coral, think about it as being about [00:02:45] the size of half of a saucer from a teacup. And they can be branching like, like little mini trees with little polyps on them. So all different shapes, you know, they can be brain corals that have little hexagons all over them. Um, boulder [00:03:00] corals.

[00:03:00] Theresa Fyffe: So, you know, they’re very, they are really beautiful. Um, and just the three dimensional shapes that they take on are just fantastic. That’s incredible. I

[00:03:09] Maryam Pasha: wanna know more about this specific work, but I wanna know a little bit about you.

[00:03:12] Theresa’s journey to marine science

[00:03:12] Maryam Pasha: So what brought you to doing this work?

[00:03:14] Theresa Fyffe: Who are [00:03:15] you? I think the most important thing, like for me, my whole career has just been, I like to know I’m making a difference and I really, really like big challenges, bringing people together and kind of going, what’s the biggest challenge that you face?

[00:03:27] Theresa Fyffe: And let’s see if we can. Raise money and then solve [00:03:30] that problem. So I started, the first, almost 20 years was in medical research and I played that convening role. I was a medical scientist and I brought people together to deal with lots of the intractable or invisible problems in the medical science space.

[00:03:43] Theresa Fyffe: And as [00:03:45] someone about to go into university, I’d been going, do I go medical science? Do I go marine science? So after almost 20 years in medical science, I went, you know what? I don’t think I have to choose. I can have both.

[00:03:55] Maryam Pasha: I love that.

[00:03:55] Theresa Fyffe: And so I went over to. The marine science space. So I’m not a marine scientist.

[00:03:59] Theresa Fyffe: I [00:04:00] have no formal qualification. I’ve learned a lot in the last 15 years, but I have a team of amazing people. I partner with amazing scientists from some of Australia’s best and biggest research organizations and internationally, and I just have that great job of bringing all those people together to deliver [00:04:15] impact.

[00:04:15] Maryam Pasha: There was a great thing you said around, or you told us about how.

[00:04:18] Collaborative reef restoration efforts

[00:04:18] Maryam Pasha: Australia brought together a group of scientists to help solve this problem. Can you tell us better about that? Because that sounds like a really good idea and we should do more of that for other things.

[00:04:27] Theresa Fyffe: Yeah, absolutely. As happens in lots [00:04:30] of research organizations, there was lots of little groups in lots of organizations focusing on different parts of the reef restoration problem, and we basically brought them all together.

[00:04:40] Theresa Fyffe: So 350 scientists and engineers, um, material [00:04:45] scientists, like biologists, all different backgrounds. And just effectively said, we’re gonna design a research program that is focused on how we can make reef restoration faster, cheaper, and smarter than it currently is. And four years [00:05:00] later, you know, you have these amazing outcomes because everyone’s working on a shared vision.

[00:05:05] Theresa Fyffe: And, uh, initially it, it, it took a while to kind of Right, change the, the paradigm, but. Not that long because everyone just got so excited by what was possible if we all worked [00:05:15] together.

[00:05:16] Maryam Pasha: I think that is such a beautiful model. Do you think it might be one that is like replicated, given now, the success that’s happened with it?

[00:05:22] Maryam Pasha: Absolutely.

[00:05:23] Theresa Fyffe: Absolutely. And it needs to happen because the problems that we are facing are continuing to grow and we need diverse [00:05:30] opinions and we need people to be not just thinking with an institutional organizational hat, it’s like, what’s the problem? Focus on the problem, and. Do know that we can do this bigger and better.

[00:05:42] Theresa Fyffe: Yeah. If we are all just focused on the problem and not [00:05:45] our own little silos.

[00:05:47] Maryam Pasha: Incredible.

[00:05:47] Heat tolerant corals: a solution to warming oceans

[00:05:47] Maryam Pasha: Now, one of the things you’ve mentioned already, and I wanna just dig into it, is this idea of heat tolerant corals. Mm. Why?

[00:05:55] Theresa Fyffe: So the biggest killer of corals is warming oceans and corals are [00:06:00] basically fed by an algae that lives inside of them.

[00:06:02] Theresa Fyffe: And when corals get stressed, they basically create conditions which make the algae leave them. And so if the algae don’t return within a certain time period, the corals can starve to death. The oceans warming up. We’re having these [00:06:15] heat events like we had last year where nearly all the corals in certain areas in Florida died really, really rapidly from increasing heat.

[00:06:23] Theresa Fyffe: So we need to. Look for those corals that have survived big bleaching events. They’re the ones that are more heat [00:06:30] tolerant, interesting. And look at new ways to make heat tolerant corals.

[00:06:32] Maryam Pasha: The reason I find it exciting is this I, this idea that we can still have coral reefs, even if we’re. Not able to maybe get the ocean back to the temperature.

[00:06:41] Maryam Pasha: It was pre-industrial.

[00:06:43] Theresa Fyffe: Yeah. And I mean, coral [00:06:45] reefs already look different. That’s the reality. You know, someone says, I dived this reef 30 years ago, what would it look like if I went back now? And the reality is, most likely it would be different in some way. But yeah, with heat tolerant corals means we’re likely to have like less.

[00:06:59] Theresa Fyffe: [00:07:00] Species of corals, and it’s all about trying to sustain the reef systems while we stabilize climate because if we can, and it’s a combination of doing both this restoration work and we also actually are cryobank corals. So the ones that we know are not gonna make it, [00:07:15] that they get put in the deep freeze.

[00:07:17] Theresa Fyffe: And so when we get to a point in time when the climate is stabilized and we’re all optimists. Right, so we are gonna get there. I’m wearing the badge, gonna get there and stabilize climate. We’ve got enough of the resilience of the system there, and then we can bring [00:07:30] these other ones outta cryobank and hopefully have really flourishing coral reefs down the line.

[00:07:35] Maryam Pasha: That’s beautiful. I love that. I. I, I think this is just such a great, elegant solution that you’re working on.

[00:07:41] Micro nurseries and community involvement

[00:07:41] Maryam Pasha: One of the things you talk about in your talk is this idea of micro nurseries for local communities that are owned and operated by those communities. I was like, oh, I wanna know more about this, and I know you only have a certain amount of time in your talk, so could you just tell us a bit more?

[00:07:52] Theresa Fyffe: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, one of the things we’ve learned through creating technological solutions is you’ve, you’ve got to actually have [00:08:00] a model for delivery on the ground, and nobody knows. They’re local conditions like local communities and, and uh, and particularly we wanna work with First Nations communities in the Pacific and, and the Great Barrier Reef.

[00:08:11] Theresa Fyffe: And so the Micro Nurseries package up all of this complex, [00:08:15] what looks like complex tech. It’s actually pretty simple into, um, basically shipping containers and. We are looking at partnerships between tourism operators and local communities. We’re finding that there’s a big boom in regenerative tourism [00:08:30] and people wanna go on holidays and actually help the environment and be involved with the planning out of the corals and supporting the coral nurseries.

[00:08:37] Theresa Fyffe: So we’re looking at joint venture businesses between. Tourism operators and local communities. That actually means it’s not just good [00:08:45] for coral reefs, but it’s generating jobs, it’s generating revenue, it’s it’s generating training for local communities and opening up a potential for a restoration economy where it didn’t exist before.

[00:08:55] Maryam Pasha: That’s super exciting, and I really love the idea that this isn’t about. [00:09:00] Parachuting in solutions. You talk a little bit about that idea of bringing innovation together with ancient knowledge. Why was that so important in this work? Because not everyone does it like that.

[00:09:12] Integrating traditional knowledge with modern science

[00:09:12] Theresa Fyffe: I mean, from a, a really high level, if you [00:09:15] look at the UN stats about the fact that 80% of the world’s remaining biodiversity is in the hands of First Nations.

[00:09:21] Theresa Fyffe: Groups and on the Great Barrier Reef, just as an example, you know more than half of the Great Barrier Reef, the traditional owners have inherent rights and [00:09:30] interests, and yet of all the revenue that’s generated for the Great Barrier Reef, so little returns to them, but they are the ones that are the stewards of their country, that land and their sea country.

[00:09:41] Theresa Fyffe: They are born with an expectation. To care [00:09:45] for that country. It’s, it’s, it’s why they exist and so they are the best ones to do that. So we are really committed to. Ensuring that that’s the role as these first responders and these stewards of the earth, that they continue to play, but they’re really [00:10:00] excited about the new tech too.

[00:10:01] Theresa Fyffe: Like Yeah. You know, whether it be the micro nurseries or whether it’s drone deployment or whether, you know, it’s, they’re, yeah, they are the ones we are, we are genuinely partnering and, and we are meeting them and fulfilling their priorities, [00:10:15] um, and not just doing it our way. I feel like this is another really good example that other people could replicate in other areas.

[00:10:21] Theresa Fyffe: There’s definitely not enough acknowledgement of both that traditional knowledge and just the, those, the rights of First Nations [00:10:30] peoples and, you know, and what. Um, more than anything that we are finding our First Nations partners are wanting is really strong partnerships with not-for-profits, with science agencies, with government.

[00:10:42] Theresa Fyffe: They’re wanting to build nations, [00:10:45] but they wanna build it through partnerships and so it’s, it’s an exciting period.

[00:10:50] Maryam Pasha: It sounds like you value the knowledge of First Nations people. In the same way that you value scientific knowledge. It’s not that one is just like [00:11:00] fluffy and one is like the real stuff, but that it seems like there’s a equity in there.

[00:11:05] Theresa Fyffe: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve had so many instances where what we are finding our traditional owner groups and the Great Barrier Reef are doing is they’re bringing in scientists into their communities to [00:11:15] prove their traditional science. And so it’s starting out with scientists saying, no, that river definitely doesn’t run in that direction.

[00:11:21] Theresa Fyffe: And then traditional owners are saying, I think you’ll find that it does. And the scientist goes away and has a look and says. Actually, the river flows in that way. And the look of [00:11:30] delight. That’s right. Yeah. The validation right. For that, for traditional owners to go, our knowledge is being validated by Western scientists and then seeing the opportunity to bring it together because First Nations view on the environment is holistic.

[00:11:43] Theresa Fyffe: It is a systems view. They [00:11:45] don’t just look at a mangrove, a sea grass, a cult. Right? It’s the whole thing. Yes. And that’s the value, and

[00:11:49] Maryam Pasha: that’s what we need, I guess, really to do this work. It all works

[00:11:52] Theresa Fyffe: together and it’s all stronger together, and so whether it’s coral, seagrass, and mangroves working together, or it’s traditional owners and [00:12:00] scientists and INGOs.

[00:12:01] Theresa Fyffe: All of that collective impact is where the power is and needs to be

[00:12:04] Maryam Pasha: unleashed.

[00:12:05] Conclusion

[00:12:05] Maryam Pasha: I love this so much. I am very excited to see how this work unfolds. Thank you so much for joining us, and we are excited to have you back in the future to tell us how these baby crawls are growing. Fabulous. Thank you so much.

[00:12:18] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.

[00:12:20] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDxLondon. Until next time,

[00:12:25] Ben Hurst: stay [00:12:30] curious.