Now they are strapping on scuba gear to save these fragile ocean habitats.
At Kawaihae Harbor on the Big Island, the Army Corps of Engineers is paying for the first large-scale transplant of living coral to save a doomed reef.
Plans to expand the harbor would have meant dropping tons of boulders atop living coral to create breakwaters to protect boats from waves.
But state and federal scientists have been joined by "a cast of thousands of volunteers" to break up 14 tons of coral reef into basketball-sized pieces and carefully haul the live corals under water by boat to nearby areas, federal environmental coordinator John Naughton said yesterday.
"Mark Rice's science students at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy got a good education in practical hands-on marine biology and did the lion's share of the grunt work," said Naughton, a marine biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
The effort, which began in September, will continue until next week, when work begins on the inner breakwater.
Paul Jokiel's University of Hawaii marine biology students and other volunteers also helped transport the coral to special sites within a half mile of Kawaihae Harbor. The surrounding reefs were devastated in the 1970s by huge detonations during work on the harbor. Some reefs have recovered, and the transplanted coral is being used to repair still-damaged areas.
Coral animals are tiny, cuplike creatures with fragile bodies protected by a hard skeleton. The animals expand their tentacles at night to capture planktonic food.
Nearly all of the coral survived the trauma of relocation. Meanwhile, Jokiel and his students will monitor the transplanted reef monthly for three years to see how well it does in new habitats and what sea life it attracts.
Researchers chose 10 diverse sites, 10 to 50 feet deep, to see where the coral will thrive best: sandy bottoms, rocky bottoms, cemented dead coral, shallow surge zones or deep calm water.
The results will help environmentalists develop ways to save and restore coral in areas disturbed by development, oil spills, ship groundings and hurricanes.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Division of Aquatic Resources also are participating in the project.