University of Galway and Ifremer Test 3D Printed Reefs for Cold-Water Coral Recovery

Twenty-three 3D printed artificial reefs now sit on the Atlantic seabed at depths of up to 1,100 metres, placed there by a Franco-Irish research team testing whether additive manufacturing can speed the recovery of cold-water coral habitats damaged by bottom trawling. The structures were deployed in August from L’Atalante, a research vessel of the French Oceanographic Fleet, at two protected sites: the south-west Porcupine Bank off the west coast of Ireland, and the Guilvinec Canyon in France’s Bay of Biscay.

The deployment is the latest campaign of REDECOR (REstauration DEs CORaux d’eau froide), a three-year mission run by researchers from University of Galway, the French ocean research institute Ifremer, and Sorbonne University. It feeds into REDRESS (Restoration of deep-sea habitats to