Skeletons may send a shiver down your spine during October, but one skeleton is here to help, not to haunt.
That's because it's not for a cadaver — it's for coral reefs.
REEFrame is a project launching across the coast of Waikīkī. In 2023, it was awarded a $9 million grant from NOAA to support their efforts to restore Waikīkī's coral reefs with artificial concrete substrates.
To learn more, HPR spoke with REEFrame Project Chief Scientist Mark Hixon. He's a marine biologist with the University of Hawaiʻi, and he's teamed up with local groups to get the project off the ground and into the water.
He's hoping to get the necessary permits to begin launching their structures into the ocean and help nurse one of the state's most degraded reefs back to health.
Interview Highlights
On how REEFrame works
MARK HIXON: Waikīkī Reef has lost all its structure. There's not a lot of places for fish to live. The corals aren't doing that well. So the intention here is to build artificial structures out of concrete that are shaped just about like corals would, be a collection of corals, put them out there on the sand, and then allow corals to settle and grow on them, the fish to colonize. But then also ... while they're growing, use them as a nursery, just like a nursery on land. If we want to reforest an area, we grow little baby trees in an area, a nursery, and then we outplant them where we need them. We do the same thing underwater.
On implementing REEFrame
HIXON: So the structures have been completed, and we're now in the final phases of the permitting process. … Very, very thorough vetting of this project beforehand because it's unprecedented, and we're in the final stages of that now. So we're intending to have the final permits and install these structures off Waikiki in early next year, 2027. …
It's going to be like a forest that's growing out from shallow water to deeper water at a depth where it won't interfere with surfing; it won't interfere with boating. And it's also shallow enough for scuba divers to do their work for transplanting corals, moving corals, studying the system as it grows.
On the importance of restoring coral reefs
HIXON: We're here to help our coral reefs, and so far, everyone's been enthusiastic. … The timing was just right, and it couldn't be a moment too late. Our reefs are severely threatened, and there's great fear right now with this super warm water we're in that's causing all these hurricanes and storms that many of our corals are going to die from coral bleaching. When the water gets too warm, corals can't survive that. And if that's the case, we're going to need things like underwater nurseries. So the timing is just right.
This story aired on The Conversation on Oct. 22, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
