The National Sea Simulator (SeaSim), funded through NCRIS, is Australia’s most advanced marine experimental facility and a cornerstone of the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP). SeaSim’s industrial‑grade automation, precise environmental control, and bespoke experimental systems enable complex, long‑term studies.
Within SeaSim’s controlled environments, RRAP partners developed and validated next‑generation restoration interventions, including selective breeding of heat‑tolerant corals, assisted gene flow, and coral cryopreservation. The facility also supported the design and optimisation of scalable production technologies such as the automated spawning systems (AutoSpawners), Coral Spawning and Larval Incubation Containers (CSLICs), and Coral Growth and Rearing Aquaculture Systems (CGRAS), tested under both present‑day and future climate scenarios.
This NCRIS‑enabled capability underpinned one of the world’s largest reef restoration trials to date. During the 2025 spawning season, SeaSim produced 32,580 settlement devices seeded with more than 500,000 coral recruits, which were successfully deployed across the Great Barrier Reef. It was the first operational‑scale integration of AutoSpawners, CSLICs and CGRAS in a fully automated, end‑to‑end production pipeline.
By bridging experimental research and real‑world deployment, SeaSim provides the national infrastructure required to scale restoration from thousands to millions of corals, strengthening Australia’s sovereign capability to protect the Great Barrier Reef in a warming climate.
