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KAUST announces capacity for 360,000 corals a year on Red Sea coast

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KAUST presented a Red Sea coral restoration facility on 11 November 2026 that the university says can produce up to 360,000 corals annually. The announcement coincides with COP31 in Antalya.

The programme targets more than two million corals outplanted across 100 hectares near Shushah Island by 2030. These targets do not represent areas already restored.

The facility combines a land-based nursery with research on heat tolerance, beneficial bacteria, robotics and AI modelling. Its eCoral platform uses a digital twin to help select sites and monitor progress.

The programme page dates nursery activation to May 2026, so this announcement does not establish that all operations began on 11 November. The documents retained provide no independent survival assessment for transplanted corals.

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