The restoration and enhancement of mesophotic reef ecosystems is a relatively unknown yet exciting opportunity for ecological restoration. Seabed restoration and enhancement has several novel challenges that practitioners must overcome if we are to develop effective solutions to mitigate and offset disturbance impacts from the rapidly expanding offshore energy and aquaculture industries and to help adapt marine protected areas to climate change. These challenges include: physical access to the ecosystem, limited knowledge on ecosystem function, absence of cultivation methods, working with an animal rather than plant-based ecosystem, lack of taxonomic knowledge, development of effective monitoring programs and, of course, scale.
We will provide an overview of the Seabed Restoration and Enhancement Discovery Project - a collaboration between the Australian Government, aquaculture, maritime construction and offshore energy industries, fishers, scientists and environmental groups. The project has developed methods for the rapid collection, cultivation and seeding of marine invertebrates to aid recovery of disturbed seabeds. These 'marine seeds' have been used as part of a long-term experiment with the deployment of mesophotic artificial reefs in 80 metres of water in the Apollo Marine Park in February 2025 and the establishment of baselines and monitoring techniques to track reef trajectories through time.