How Freezing Coral Sperm Could Save Our Reefs

Scientist Mary Hagedorn is racing to save marine life through cryobiology

For the first time, scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) have successfully cryopreserved (or frozen) and thawed coral larvae from the mushroom coral (Fungia scutaria). Photo: The Smithsonian

For six weeks over this past summer, Mary Hagedorn waited on the island of Curaçao for the one night a year that elkhorn coral — a large branching coral that resembles elk antlers — spawn. Finally, as summer spilled into September, the environmentally threatened…