1 00:00:03,296 --> 00:00:06,599 ANNA MARSDEN: This is a problem that has become acute on this 2 00:00:06,639 --> 00:00:10,963 generation's watch. And terribly, the forecast is if we 3 00:00:11,003 --> 00:00:15,086 did nothing for coral reefs, we would lose them in the next 25 4 00:00:15,126 --> 00:00:16,588 years. They would be extinct. 5 00:00:20,791 --> 00:00:22,633 ROSIE HOLDSWORTH: Coral reefs are among the most important 6 00:00:22,693 --> 00:00:26,736 ecosystems on Earth. But rising temperatures, pollution and mass 7 00:00:26,816 --> 00:00:30,039 bleaching events are pushing these extraordinary ecosystems 8 00:00:30,119 --> 00:00:31,000 toward collapse. 9 00:00:32,172 --> 00:00:35,534 I'm Ranger Rosie Holdsworth and in this episode fellow ranger 10 00:00:35,594 --> 00:00:39,456 and ocean lover Ajay Tagala explores how technology inspired 11 00:00:39,476 --> 00:00:42,958 by Formula One racing is being used to restore the world's 12 00:00:43,018 --> 00:00:45,299 coral reefs before they disappear forever. 13 00:00:48,580 --> 00:00:52,422 Welcome to Wild Tales and the story of racing for reefs. 14 00:01:03,592 --> 00:01:06,733 AJAY TEGALA: Often called the rainforests of the sea, coral 15 00:01:06,793 --> 00:01:10,694 reefs are among the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on the 16 00:01:10,714 --> 00:01:15,095 planet. They provide shelter for thousands of marine species, 17 00:01:15,555 --> 00:01:18,716 protect coastlines from storms and erosion, and support the 18 00:01:18,756 --> 00:01:22,657 livelihoods of millions of people around the world. Healthy 19 00:01:22,777 --> 00:01:26,198 reefs are essential to the balance of ocean life, and the 20 00:01:26,218 --> 00:01:29,519 health of our oceans is deeply connected to the health of our 21 00:01:29,539 --> 00:01:29,959 planet. 22 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,546 Put simply, When coral reefs thrive, oceans thrive. And when 23 00:01:36,566 --> 00:01:40,068 they decline, the effects ripple far beyond the sea. 24 00:01:42,329 --> 00:01:43,510 So what is coral? 25 00:01:44,291 --> 00:01:46,872 ANNA MARSDEN: They are this remarkable organism that happens 26 00:01:46,892 --> 00:01:50,074 to be an animal, vegetable and mineral all wrapped into one. 27 00:01:50,594 --> 00:01:53,316 AJAY TEGALA: Here's Anna Marsden, Managing Director of 28 00:01:53,317 --> 00:01:54,937 the Great Barrier Reef Foundation. 29 00:01:56,758 --> 00:01:59,379 ANNA MARSDEN: And as the world gets a little bit warmer and 30 00:01:59,599 --> 00:02:02,942 oceans heat up... We're observing more frequency of an 31 00:02:02,962 --> 00:02:07,265 incident called coral bleaching. It's essentially where the coral 32 00:02:07,346 --> 00:02:11,829 structure, which is wrapped in an algae, the algae over 33 00:02:11,969 --> 00:02:15,913 photosynthesizes, so it creates too much energy and food, and so 34 00:02:16,433 --> 00:02:18,935 the coral host spits out the algae. 35 00:02:19,496 --> 00:02:22,719 So essentially when you see these stark images of white 36 00:02:22,759 --> 00:02:26,382 coral reefs, they're starving because they've lost their food 37 00:02:26,462 --> 00:02:30,861 source, because it's too hot for them to exist with the plant 38 00:02:30,981 --> 00:02:32,241 that gives them their food source. 39 00:02:38,004 --> 00:02:41,485 AJAY TEGALA: The Great Barrier Reef Foundation was founded 26 40 00:02:41,605 --> 00:02:45,207 years ago after the first coral bleaching event on the Great 41 00:02:45,267 --> 00:02:45,927 Barrier Reef. 42 00:02:47,548 --> 00:02:49,489 ANNA MARSDEN: So a coral bleaching event is a terrible 43 00:02:49,529 --> 00:02:52,270 thing to witness, but it's not dead coral, it's deeply 44 00:02:52,390 --> 00:02:55,871 heat-stressed coral. But if the heating event goes on for too 45 00:02:55,951 --> 00:02:59,617 long or if it's too extreme... The corals just starve to death. 46 00:03:00,177 --> 00:03:02,378 AJAY TEGALA: And while coral bleaching remains the most 47 00:03:02,518 --> 00:03:06,259 urgent and visible threat facing coral reefs, it's far from the 48 00:03:06,379 --> 00:03:09,481 only danger putting these underwater cities at risk. 49 00:03:11,742 --> 00:03:14,243 ANNA MARSDEN: Coral reefs have always had a bit of a perfect 50 00:03:14,263 --> 00:03:17,404 storm of threats. There's been unsustainable fisheries, of 51 00:03:17,444 --> 00:03:19,945 course, there's, you know, plastics and marine debris. 52 00:03:20,445 --> 00:03:23,106 There's also, in Australia, we have this terrible 53 00:03:23,126 --> 00:03:26,848 crown-of-thorns starfish that just eats coral. And when they 54 00:03:26,928 --> 00:03:29,408 become... They plague proportions. They basically just 55 00:03:29,609 --> 00:03:31,049 mow down a coral reef. 56 00:03:31,669 --> 00:03:35,450 So these threats have always been around, but there's always 57 00:03:35,530 --> 00:03:39,611 been enough of a recovery window for coral reefs to repair 58 00:03:39,671 --> 00:03:42,772 themselves because they can repair themselves. What we're 59 00:03:42,832 --> 00:03:46,593 seeing is there's just too many coral bleaching events of a 60 00:03:46,633 --> 00:03:50,094 frequency and a severity that there is no longer the natural 61 00:03:50,134 --> 00:03:54,716 window for corals to recover. So for example, since 2016, we've 62 00:03:54,736 --> 00:03:55,536 had five 63 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,082 mass coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef. And in a 64 00:03:59,162 --> 00:04:04,305 normal environment, a coral reef given five years after a coral 65 00:04:04,325 --> 00:04:07,146 bleaching event or a big cyclone where the corals get all beaten 66 00:04:07,226 --> 00:04:10,388 up, it will look as pristine as you've ever seen it. So if you 67 00:04:10,389 --> 00:04:14,130 can get a recovery window of about five years, fantastic. 68 00:04:14,570 --> 00:04:15,651 We're getting one or two. 69 00:04:16,331 --> 00:04:18,452 AJAY TEGALA: A significant amount of the world's coral 70 00:04:18,492 --> 00:04:22,194 reefs have already been lost, including over half of the Great 71 00:04:22,234 --> 00:04:25,356 Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system. 72 00:04:26,140 --> 00:04:29,482 ANNA MARSDEN: It's 2,300 kilometres long. So it's the 73 00:04:29,542 --> 00:04:33,164 size of about 50 million football fields. So an ecosystem 74 00:04:33,244 --> 00:04:37,606 that large to lose half of its biodiversity, if half the 75 00:04:37,666 --> 00:04:42,009 housing in London was to just be removed, you think about the 76 00:04:42,010 --> 00:04:45,431 displaced communities, all of that disruption. 77 00:04:45,891 --> 00:04:48,893 That's what's going on in the oceans right now. This is a 78 00:04:49,073 --> 00:04:53,315 problem that has become acute on this generation's watch and 79 00:04:53,935 --> 00:04:58,010 terribly the forecast is if we did nothing for coral reefs, we 80 00:04:58,030 --> 00:05:01,741 would lose them in the next 25 years. They would be extinct. 81 00:05:02,162 --> 00:05:05,244 Well, or very close to. So we have to solve this. 82 00:05:06,605 --> 00:05:09,987 AJAY TEGALA: And in September 2023, an unexpected partner 83 00:05:10,147 --> 00:05:12,149 joined the race to save coral reefs. 84 00:05:18,553 --> 00:05:22,035 KIM WILSON: McLaren Racing is probably best known for racing 85 00:05:22,036 --> 00:05:22,816 in Formula One. 86 00:05:23,717 --> 00:05:26,398 AJAY TEGALA: Here's Kim Wilson, Director of Sustainability at 87 00:05:26,439 --> 00:05:27,239 McLaren Racing. 88 00:05:28,992 --> 00:05:32,195 KIM WILSON: We are currently the world champions in both drivers 89 00:05:32,375 --> 00:05:34,777 and the constructors championships. 90 00:05:36,098 --> 00:05:37,159 AJAY TEGALA: As a high-performance 91 00:05:37,199 --> 00:05:40,601 carbon-intensive sport, Formula One faces significant 92 00:05:40,682 --> 00:05:41,983 environmental challenges. 93 00:05:43,284 --> 00:05:45,766 In response, teams are increasingly embracing 94 00:05:45,826 --> 00:05:49,469 Sustainability and innovation, pursuing ambitious goals to 95 00:05:49,489 --> 00:05:52,391 reduce their environmental footprint despite the long road 96 00:05:52,431 --> 00:05:52,751 ahead. 97 00:05:56,952 --> 00:06:00,415 KIM WILSON: As a racing team in Formula One, we recognise that 98 00:06:00,435 --> 00:06:04,358 we need to balance the growth of our sport and our team with the 99 00:06:04,378 --> 00:06:07,721 impact that we're having on the environment, and we take that 100 00:06:07,761 --> 00:06:09,482 responsibility incredibly seriously. 101 00:06:11,184 --> 00:06:14,686 We were the first team to have a validated science-based target, 102 00:06:14,907 --> 00:06:19,650 and we have committed to halve our emissions by 2030 and to 103 00:06:19,670 --> 00:06:24,554 achieve net zero by 2040. We do think that actually we have the 104 00:06:24,574 --> 00:06:29,077 most incredible platform to be able to address some of the 105 00:06:29,117 --> 00:06:32,479 complex challenges that we need to solve in terms of 106 00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:33,860 environmental solutions. 107 00:06:37,603 --> 00:06:40,164 AJAY TEGALA: And can the technology expertise and global 108 00:06:40,244 --> 00:06:43,646 platform of the sport actually help with challenges like coral 109 00:06:43,686 --> 00:06:44,587 reef restoration? 110 00:06:45,547 --> 00:06:48,329 KIM WILSON: We're here to bring both a pioneering and 111 00:06:48,349 --> 00:06:52,231 exhilarating experience to our fans who love and watch racing, 112 00:06:52,531 --> 00:06:55,814 but we're also a really high performance, high precision 113 00:06:55,954 --> 00:06:59,336 engineering company who are really at the forefront of 114 00:06:59,396 --> 00:07:00,637 innovation and technology. 115 00:07:01,417 --> 00:07:03,839 AJAY TEGALA: And it's that high precision engineering that was 116 00:07:03,899 --> 00:07:07,381 exactly what the Great Barrier Reef Foundation needed to scale 117 00:07:07,382 --> 00:07:10,203 up their work tackling coral reef restoration. 118 00:07:11,904 --> 00:07:15,727 Coral reef restoration is a new process. A technique called 119 00:07:15,787 --> 00:07:20,410 coral gardening is more widely used. In 2019, I was excited to 120 00:07:20,450 --> 00:07:24,232 join a conservation project in Gaya Island, in Borneo, where we 121 00:07:24,252 --> 00:07:27,773 took part in a coral gardening assignment. I got such a buzz 122 00:07:27,873 --> 00:07:30,854 from helping to nurture a reef back to its former glory. 123 00:07:31,234 --> 00:07:33,995 However, this project was on a much smaller scale. 124 00:07:35,235 --> 00:07:38,436 ANNA MARSDEN: Reef restoration is quite a new terminology. 125 00:07:38,896 --> 00:07:41,197 Coral gardening's been around for a long time, where people 126 00:07:41,217 --> 00:07:45,138 will crack off a bit of coral and tie it to a tile and let it 127 00:07:45,158 --> 00:07:49,479 grow, and that's great. But on a coral reef system as big as the 128 00:07:49,499 --> 00:07:51,180 Great Barrier Reef, that's just 129 00:07:51,420 --> 00:07:55,281 bonkers to think that you could scale manually reef restoration. 130 00:07:55,641 --> 00:08:00,843 So we've been very focused on how could you upscale reef 131 00:08:00,883 --> 00:08:05,784 restoration at a meaningful level to actually be that 132 00:08:05,924 --> 00:08:08,745 missing inch to help the regeneration and speed up the 133 00:08:08,785 --> 00:08:12,126 regeneration of coral reefs in those small windows of recovery. 134 00:08:14,687 --> 00:08:17,007 AJAY TEGALA: And once a year, coral reefs begin their own 135 00:08:17,087 --> 00:08:20,284 remarkable process of recovery and regeneration. Through an 136 00:08:20,304 --> 00:08:22,105 event known as coral spawning. 137 00:08:23,985 --> 00:08:25,386 ANNA MARSDEN: Sir David Attenborough describes it as one 138 00:08:25,387 --> 00:08:28,866 of the most wondrous events in the world where essentially all 139 00:08:28,907 --> 00:08:32,788 the corals produce these reproductive bundles which turn 140 00:08:32,828 --> 00:08:35,688 into coral babies about one or two nights a year. 141 00:08:36,589 --> 00:08:40,450 And as long as all that coral spawn and those coral babies get 142 00:08:40,470 --> 00:08:43,491 to where they need to go, those coral babies will settle and 143 00:08:43,531 --> 00:08:46,712 then grow into big corals that can be functioning and go on and 144 00:08:46,852 --> 00:08:50,097 the circle of life continues. And it is like an upside down 145 00:08:50,277 --> 00:08:53,320 snowstorm, but it's the most amazing thing to be in the ocean 146 00:08:53,340 --> 00:08:53,861 and witness. 147 00:08:56,643 --> 00:08:59,065 AJAY TEGALA: As coral spawning happens on just one or two 148 00:08:59,105 --> 00:09:02,848 nights each year, if that narrow window is missed, scientists 149 00:09:02,888 --> 00:09:05,511 have to wait another full year for the next opportunity. 150 00:09:06,311 --> 00:09:08,974 KIM WILSON: That's a very tight performance window. And if you 151 00:09:09,014 --> 00:09:12,497 compare that to what we do in racing, that's a very similar 152 00:09:12,537 --> 00:09:15,659 challenge that we have to face. And we're used to solving those 153 00:09:15,699 --> 00:09:19,845 problems. And the key to that is preparation and planning and 154 00:09:19,985 --> 00:09:22,926 have a strategy to be able to perform in that tight window 155 00:09:23,186 --> 00:09:25,247 where you have the once a year opportunity. 156 00:09:31,488 --> 00:09:33,869 AJAY TEGALA: But it's not just the timing that's a challenge 157 00:09:33,949 --> 00:09:34,889 with this process. 158 00:09:36,190 --> 00:09:38,771 ANNA MARSDEN: Unfortunately, because there's so much degraded 159 00:09:38,831 --> 00:09:42,372 corals, all that coral spawns don't always get to where they 160 00:09:42,412 --> 00:09:45,406 need to get to. And then the other thing, the coral spawn is 161 00:09:45,407 --> 00:09:48,349 really delicious. So all the birds and the turtles and the 162 00:09:48,409 --> 00:09:51,191 fish go, nom nom nom, so in this moment where it's like 163 00:09:51,312 --> 00:09:54,935 everything matters, you've got all these amazing animals having 164 00:09:54,936 --> 00:09:58,919 a wonderful time so it's precious. This is the only 165 00:09:59,019 --> 00:10:01,921 chance we have to naturally rebuild the reef because we 166 00:10:01,941 --> 00:10:04,761 don't want to get into designer reefs we want to just provide 167 00:10:04,781 --> 00:10:07,902 that extra inch for mother nature to help give these 168 00:10:07,922 --> 00:10:10,703 spawning events the greatest chance of success. 169 00:10:10,703 --> 00:10:13,224 AJAY TEGALA: The Great Barrier Reef Foundation and scientists 170 00:10:13,244 --> 00:10:16,805 in Australia developed a pioneering restoration technique 171 00:10:17,105 --> 00:10:19,245 known as coral IVF. 172 00:10:19,245 --> 00:10:21,286 ANNA MARSDEN: Essentially what that means is on those coral 173 00:10:21,326 --> 00:10:24,887 spawning evenings we go out there and collect all the coral 174 00:10:24,927 --> 00:10:28,868 babies and we rear them up so they're pretty hardy, sort of a 175 00:10:28,908 --> 00:10:32,861 week old. And then we take them to locations where the corals 176 00:10:32,921 --> 00:10:35,963 are unable to reproduce themselves naturally, although 177 00:10:36,023 --> 00:10:38,904 the reef is just absent, and we can let them resettle. 178 00:10:39,544 --> 00:10:41,805 AJAY TEGALA: But the Great Barrier Reef Foundation needed 179 00:10:41,885 --> 00:10:45,867 help to progress the process in terms of speed, volume and 180 00:10:45,907 --> 00:10:48,788 affordability. Enter McLaren Racing. 181 00:10:49,389 --> 00:10:52,730 KIM WILSON: Coral reef restoration is a highly manual, 182 00:10:52,870 --> 00:10:57,672 very labour-intensive, very sensitive process. So... What we 183 00:10:57,752 --> 00:11:01,133 can bring to the table as McLaren Racing is helping to 184 00:11:01,193 --> 00:11:05,575 make the existing process more efficient, scalable and cost 185 00:11:05,615 --> 00:11:10,216 effective. We have a small team of engineers and they're in a 186 00:11:10,236 --> 00:11:12,116 group called McLaren Accelerator. 187 00:11:12,497 --> 00:11:16,858 They take the F1 know-how and experience that we have in how 188 00:11:16,859 --> 00:11:20,759 we develop a race car, how we go about going racing, and then 189 00:11:20,799 --> 00:11:23,640 they apply it to projects away from the racetrack. 190 00:11:24,140 --> 00:11:27,342 The engineers who worked on this specific project have a mass 191 00:11:27,402 --> 00:11:31,404 manufacturing production background as engineers, so they 192 00:11:31,444 --> 00:11:35,246 really have that beautiful sweet spot of Formula One mindset 193 00:11:35,306 --> 00:11:39,308 approach in engineering, how you can then apply that into 194 00:11:39,709 --> 00:11:43,051 industrial manufacturing processes and taking the best of 195 00:11:43,091 --> 00:11:44,491 both worlds and combining them. 196 00:11:45,612 --> 00:11:48,153 ANNA MARSDEN: Given that we had sort of hit a wall of where 197 00:11:48,193 --> 00:11:51,475 science could take us, the idea of bringing engineers, but not 198 00:11:51,476 --> 00:11:57,444 just any engineers. Engineers obsessed with speed into our 199 00:11:57,544 --> 00:12:00,786 little world and going, " anything you could do here?", 200 00:12:00,786 --> 00:12:02,207 seemed quite curious. 201 00:12:03,569 --> 00:12:06,351 AJAY TEGALA: The current coral IVF process begins with 202 00:12:06,391 --> 00:12:10,074 scientists collecting floating coral spawn bundles during the 203 00:12:10,094 --> 00:12:13,997 reef's annual spawning event. In controlled tanks, the eggs and 204 00:12:14,057 --> 00:12:17,820 sperm are carefully mixed to maximise fertilisation success 205 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:21,503 before the developing coral are encouraged to settle onto large 206 00:12:21,583 --> 00:12:22,083 tiles. 207 00:12:22,844 --> 00:12:26,146 Those tiles are then cut into smaller tabs, fitted into 208 00:12:26,226 --> 00:12:29,368 ceramic cradles, and returned to the ocean, where the coral 209 00:12:29,408 --> 00:12:32,910 babies can attach and grow, eventually rebuilding the reef. 210 00:12:34,671 --> 00:12:37,992 ANNA MARSDEN: It allows you to produce really hardy, healthy 211 00:12:38,092 --> 00:12:41,134 corals at a large scale and get them where they need to get to. 212 00:12:42,075 --> 00:12:44,016 AJAY TEGALA: McLaren saw two bottlenecks. 213 00:12:45,456 --> 00:12:47,798 ANNA MARSDEN: One was, we have all the coral babies settling on 214 00:12:47,799 --> 00:12:50,939 these big sheets that almost look like chocolate blocks, 215 00:12:50,999 --> 00:12:55,641 little squares. And we were then breaking up the individual tiles 216 00:12:56,101 --> 00:12:59,422 with human hands, sort of squishing the coral babies. It 217 00:12:59,442 --> 00:13:02,323 sounds more graphic than it is. So they were thinking about a 218 00:13:02,363 --> 00:13:05,344 system to precisely cut those sheets. 219 00:13:05,824 --> 00:13:08,305 The second thing was, is you have to take this thing and 220 00:13:08,345 --> 00:13:11,806 place it in these coral cradles. And you're doing all of that 221 00:13:11,846 --> 00:13:16,047 underwater. And let's be honest, after about 10, it's really 222 00:13:16,107 --> 00:13:19,428 boring. So they also saw a process that you could possibly 223 00:13:19,628 --> 00:13:23,130 automate that. That speeds up the production of the next 224 00:13:23,131 --> 00:13:24,891 generation of corals getting out settling. 225 00:13:29,574 --> 00:13:31,936 KIM WILSON: And I remember this so clearly, sitting in a room 226 00:13:32,056 --> 00:13:35,699 with about 10 of us, workshopping, okay, what's the 227 00:13:35,739 --> 00:13:39,742 goal? And that's how we would go about it in Formula 1. So our 228 00:13:39,802 --> 00:13:43,704 goal was, how can we reduce lap time? How can we go around a 229 00:13:43,724 --> 00:13:47,827 racetrack faster? And the goal for us was, how can we plant a 230 00:13:47,867 --> 00:13:48,808 million corals 231 00:13:49,008 --> 00:13:53,110 on the reef that survive in a year? And so what we wanted to 232 00:13:53,130 --> 00:13:57,812 do was develop a semi-automated process to be able to remove 233 00:13:57,852 --> 00:14:02,214 that highly labour-intensive manual part of taking the baby 234 00:14:02,294 --> 00:14:05,895 corals and putting them into the devices and turn that into a 235 00:14:05,896 --> 00:14:06,255 machine. 236 00:14:06,696 --> 00:14:09,217 We didn't want it to be expensive, you know, highly 237 00:14:09,317 --> 00:14:12,478 energy intensive. It had to be something that could be operated 238 00:14:12,518 --> 00:14:17,242 by one or two people to get the output that we needed. And so 239 00:14:17,382 --> 00:14:20,524 that's when we then went into the mode of designing and then 240 00:14:20,824 --> 00:14:22,305 testing and building OSCAR. 241 00:14:24,787 --> 00:14:28,929 It's called the Operational System For Coral Assembly And 242 00:14:29,009 --> 00:14:32,691 Restoration, or as we like to affectionately call it, OSCAR. 243 00:14:33,312 --> 00:14:36,653 Now, it's no coincidence that we happen to have one of our 244 00:14:36,673 --> 00:14:39,975 Formula One drivers who's called Oscar, Oscar Piastri as well. 245 00:14:41,977 --> 00:14:44,786 AJAY TEGALA: OSCAR is the size of a shipping container. And 246 00:14:44,826 --> 00:14:48,348 looks like an enclosed engineering rig with a metal 247 00:14:48,408 --> 00:14:52,329 frame and transparent safety panels. The robotic handling 248 00:14:52,369 --> 00:14:55,611 mechanism moves the coral cradles through different stages 249 00:14:55,671 --> 00:14:56,251 of assembly. 250 00:14:57,031 --> 00:14:59,892 It looks like a high-end electronics assembly machine 251 00:15:00,233 --> 00:15:03,014 that you might see in a factory, but instead of assembling 252 00:15:03,074 --> 00:15:07,776 electronics or car parts, it's rapidly loading baby corals into 253 00:15:07,876 --> 00:15:09,496 reef restoration cradles. 254 00:15:14,270 --> 00:15:17,091 KIM WILSON: We did very much go through a very similar process 255 00:15:17,131 --> 00:15:21,592 to how we go about developing a race car of a regulation season 256 00:15:21,712 --> 00:15:26,033 or a beginning of a year. So we design it, we then simulate it, 257 00:15:26,173 --> 00:15:29,794 and we go to test, we iterate and we improve it based on the 258 00:15:29,814 --> 00:15:30,875 results and the data. 259 00:15:31,375 --> 00:15:35,196 And then we go out to our first race. And then after every race, 260 00:15:35,197 --> 00:15:38,937 we take the data and we improve it and we look at how we can 261 00:15:38,977 --> 00:15:41,538 make it better. And that's exactly the process we're 262 00:15:41,558 --> 00:15:43,218 following with OSCAR and the machine. 263 00:15:43,590 --> 00:15:46,112 AJAY TEGALA: And just like Formula One, the results speak 264 00:15:46,152 --> 00:15:46,952 for themselves. 265 00:15:47,633 --> 00:15:50,935 KIM WILSON: When we timed ourselves on how quickly we were 266 00:15:51,015 --> 00:15:55,598 able to manually assemble these tiles of baby corals into the 267 00:15:55,618 --> 00:15:59,821 cradles, it was taking 90 seconds. With OSCAR, we can do 268 00:15:59,921 --> 00:16:06,306 that in less than 10. That's an 800% efficiency gain. When you 269 00:16:06,346 --> 00:16:09,868 then scale that up, and if it's operating as designed, we can 270 00:16:09,908 --> 00:16:14,572 then go from that 100,000 corals planted on the reef to a million 271 00:16:14,752 --> 00:16:18,475 in a year and we'll do it at a cost reduction as well. 272 00:16:19,336 --> 00:16:21,698 ANNA MARSDEN: I mean the production output of this is a 273 00:16:21,778 --> 00:16:25,341 game changer. You could have on a Great Barrier Reef 15 of these 274 00:16:25,381 --> 00:16:30,386 micro nurseries all working. So suddenly we're finally in a 275 00:16:30,446 --> 00:16:34,809 position to regenerate at a meaningful scale. This is a 276 00:16:34,850 --> 00:16:38,893 story now of leaning in with a solution in a very targeted a 277 00:16:38,894 --> 00:16:41,735 meaningful way. There could be the missing piece for the 278 00:16:41,755 --> 00:16:43,975 recovery of these vital ecosystems. 279 00:16:44,655 --> 00:16:47,496 AJAY TEGALA: OSCAR is now in Townsville in Queensland at the 280 00:16:47,536 --> 00:16:50,717 National Sea Simulator, the world's largest research 281 00:16:50,757 --> 00:16:54,098 aquarium, where he's being tested on baby corals that were 282 00:16:54,118 --> 00:16:57,219 grown in the 2025 to 2026 season. 283 00:16:58,319 --> 00:17:01,000 KIM WILSON: So we're running the machine using those baby corals 284 00:17:01,001 --> 00:17:04,921 and looking at the results. And like we do in racing, we will be 285 00:17:05,462 --> 00:17:09,343 learning from what's gone well, what hasn't gone so well, and 286 00:17:09,363 --> 00:17:12,825 tweaking and iterating the machine as we go. And then the 287 00:17:12,845 --> 00:17:17,547 big challenge will be how do we use it when the coral starts 288 00:17:17,567 --> 00:17:22,348 spawning again in November 2026. I'm very excited to see how we 289 00:17:22,389 --> 00:17:22,969 go with that. 290 00:17:24,389 --> 00:17:27,331 AJAY TEGALA: And as with racing, the parameters and ambitions 291 00:17:27,411 --> 00:17:29,071 continue to change and grow. 292 00:17:30,312 --> 00:17:34,213 KIM WILSON: We still have some work to do because it's really 293 00:17:34,273 --> 00:17:38,476 important that we see this through to a reliable machine. 294 00:17:38,977 --> 00:17:42,880 So again, if I go back to how we approach racing, we put that car 295 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,684 on track at the first race of the season. It's 80 to 100% 296 00:17:47,804 --> 00:17:51,507 different from the car at the end of the season because you're 297 00:17:51,647 --> 00:17:55,310 constantly chasing for that thousandth of a second of 298 00:17:55,630 --> 00:17:56,631 performance gain. 299 00:17:56,851 --> 00:18:01,075 And what I love is that the engineers who have got us from 300 00:18:01,335 --> 00:18:04,998 90 seconds to 10 seconds are like, "we can go faster, we can 301 00:18:04,999 --> 00:18:08,819 do better, that's not good enough". So we want to be 302 00:18:08,879 --> 00:18:12,361 reliable and we want to go faster because that's what coral 303 00:18:12,421 --> 00:18:13,021 reefs need. 304 00:18:17,323 --> 00:18:19,964 ANNA MARSDEN: We need to be able to produce and generate corals 305 00:18:19,965 --> 00:18:22,385 that are tougher because we're still going to keep getting 306 00:18:22,425 --> 00:18:24,906 warmer and warmer and warmer. There's no point just producing 307 00:18:24,907 --> 00:18:28,368 the corals that are weak for the future. What we love about this 308 00:18:28,408 --> 00:18:31,189 is the broodstock that we're using in this process is 309 00:18:31,249 --> 00:18:33,530 surviving corals. These are corals that already have 310 00:18:33,590 --> 00:18:36,292 survived you know, five, six coral bleaching events. 311 00:18:36,612 --> 00:18:38,894 And then we're looking at ways that we can also boost that 312 00:18:38,974 --> 00:18:42,637 thermal tolerance. So the combinations of this throughput 313 00:18:42,737 --> 00:18:45,499 and high production plus the marine science that we're 314 00:18:45,519 --> 00:18:49,863 working on to help these corals toughen up gives us, we believe, 315 00:18:49,864 --> 00:18:54,266 the winning formula to be able to produce corals and keep these 316 00:18:54,306 --> 00:18:58,670 ecosystems alive while the world works on the warming issue and 317 00:18:58,690 --> 00:18:59,351 things like that. 318 00:18:59,371 --> 00:19:04,355 KIM WILSON: When organisations apply the things that they are 319 00:19:04,435 --> 00:19:08,457 good at, their skill sets, to some of the world's most complex 320 00:19:08,557 --> 00:19:12,239 challenges, I think is something that I hope others will take 321 00:19:12,259 --> 00:19:16,742 from this as well. There's been a 322 00:19:16,982 --> 00:19:21,766 lot of doubt around whether or not we were just telling a nice 323 00:19:21,806 --> 00:19:27,050 PR story and to be able to stand up and say I think we have 324 00:19:27,151 --> 00:19:30,713 honestly helped with the conservation breakthrough for 325 00:19:30,754 --> 00:19:34,577 coral reef restoration and this machine could be the life 326 00:19:34,637 --> 00:19:39,441 support that coral reefs need is something I will hold with me 327 00:19:39,761 --> 00:19:43,564 for the rest of my life and look back on it with immense pride. 328 00:19:44,205 --> 00:19:45,486 The collaboration has worked. 329 00:19:48,262 --> 00:19:51,464 ANNA MARSDEN: In a perfect world, these ecosystems will 330 00:19:51,524 --> 00:19:55,125 just be thriving and happy with all the complexity of life, 331 00:19:55,525 --> 00:19:58,927 doing what they need to do because they have for centuries, 332 00:19:58,967 --> 00:20:00,608 they've hit a rough spot. 333 00:20:01,088 --> 00:20:03,629 What we are going to do is aid that recovery and there will be 334 00:20:03,630 --> 00:20:06,531 a time when the corals will be able to repair themselves again 335 00:20:06,851 --> 00:20:09,712 and we can go back to just enjoying them, knowing that the 336 00:20:09,732 --> 00:20:12,354 marine life on planet Earth is happy because coral reefs are 337 00:20:12,355 --> 00:20:13,134 doing their function. 338 00:20:33,418 --> 00:20:35,399 AJAY TEGALA: Thank you for listening to this episode of 339 00:20:35,460 --> 00:20:38,902 Wild Tales. If you want to find out more about the Great Barrier 340 00:20:38,962 --> 00:20:42,385 Reef Foundation or McLaren Racing's Sustainability work, 341 00:20:42,765 --> 00:20:44,746 there are links in the episode show notes. 342 00:20:46,247 --> 00:20:48,049 Until next time, goodbye.