Coral spawn cryopreservation

[Peter Harrison]

Hi Paul,

Gregor Hodgson has done some early work on this - see his hybrid paper 1988
Coral conference in Townsville,

cheers

Peter>Hi all,
>
>I was curious to know whether anyone had attempted to cryogenically freeze
>then restore coral eggs and sperm. I know eggs & sperm from recently spawned
>corals have been sucessfully collected and grown out, but if they could be
>cryopreserved, then they could be stored in bulk and redeposited on the same
>reef if it was somehow destroyed. Obviously if the cause of any such die off
>would have to be rectified and I guess this is assuming that algae & borers
>don't destroy the underlying reef structure prior to any reseeding.
>
>Paul Groves
>Head Aquarist
>Underwater World - Perth - Australia
>Founder MASWA - Marine Aquarists Society of WA
>Email paul at nw.com.au
>ICQ VIN# 4231441


Dr Peter Harrison
Senior Lecturer in Ecology
School of Resource Science and Management
Southern Cross University
PO Box 157
Lismore NSW 2480
Australia

Phone: 0266 203774
Fax: 0266 212669

International: 61 266 203774