Researchers at two Australian universities have developed a robot that is designed to move autonomously along the barrier reef, seeding it with hundreds of thousands of microscopic baby corals.
In a trial run, the robot dispersed 100,000 baby specimens derived from coral which is believed to be especially tolerant of warmer water.
This development follows the discovery that the number of coral bleaching events has risen dramatically in recent years, with about half of the Great Barrier Reef having died off.