US pioneers restoration of deep water corals damaged by country’s worst oil spill

US pioneers restoration of deep water corals damaged by country’s worst oil spill

In the twilight depths of the Gulf of Mexico, about as deep down as a football field is long, U.S. Navy divers carefully snip small branches of corals with gloved hands. Their voices crackle through communication systems to the ship above, distorted to high-pitched tones by the helium mixtures they breathe. “These guys, they’re tough, tough Navy dudes that are saturation experimental divers,” Chris Gardner, a U.S. government fisheries biologist …