In an ordinary warehouse in Breda, Maarten van Aalst and Stan Overwijn from Branch Foundation are working on something that sounds almost unbelievable: saving the world with football fields full of tropical coral. They quickly grow new coral in large water tanks that will soon restore the oceans. What started with a test setup on an industrial estate is growing into a mission with hopefully a huge impact: “We want to save the world with this.”
The idea did not originate in Breda, but in Curaçao. Maarten worked there as a volunteer to restore damaged coral reefs. “Nice work,” he says, “but incredibly inefficient. You spend hours diving and cleaning, while the reef deteriorates faster than you can keep up with.”
Back in the Netherlands, he and his current partners decided to do things differently. Much different. Why grow coral underwater if you can control it much more precisely on land? In their Breda warehouse they built a fully automated test setup: containers full of tropical seawater, bright blue lamps, pumps, sensors and a carefully simulated ecosystem with fish, snails and even sea urchins.
And it works. “We grow more coral here in one square meter than you could ever manage underwater,” says colleague Stan proudly.
“Without coral, the fish and therefore the food disappear.”
Why does that coral actually have to be saved? “Coral reefs are the nurseries of the ocean,” Maarten explains. “Without coral, fish disappear and food disappears. In addition, coastal communities lose their natural protection and you get floods.”
Billions of people depend directly or indirectly on reefs. That is precisely why rapid death is such a big problem. Due to the warming of the oceans, the coral animal is losing its nourishing algae. First it fades, then it dies. “So if you don’t do anything, an entire ecosystem will collapse,” says Stan.
The two entrepreneurs have big plans for their team. They want to set up coral factories worldwide in which strong, healthy corals are grown. The warehouse in Breda is the first step: here they prove that their method works and new techniques are tested.
“Our dream is to replant at least four football fields per month,” says Maarten. “That sounds big, but it has to be that way. The speed at which reefs are disappearing is much faster.”
The corals first grow on small ‘plugs’ to which they attach themselves. When they are big enough, they are planted in the sea. By divers or with innovative methods such as biodegradable nets. What is most efficient is determined per country.
“Only when we are redundant have we won.”
But in Breda it’s not just about growing. Together with universities, the team is working on ways to make the algae on which the coral lives more heat-resistant. In this way, they hope to not only restore reefs, but also prepare them for the future.
The men do it with conviction. “We don’t want to say later that we could have done more,” says Maarten. “When coral factories are running all over the world and reefs can restore themselves, then we will be ready. Then we will be redundant and we will have won. And that is exactly the intention.”