An exclusive look inside the largest effort ever mounted to keep the Great Barrier Reef alive

Sara Godinez-Espinosa, a research technician with the Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program (RRAP), sets an adult colony of branching coral called Acropora kenti into a bin at the National Sea Simulator near Townsville, Australia. | Harriet Spark for Vox

CAIRNS, Australia — “I just got a whiff,” said Peter Harrison, a marine scientist, as he leaned over the edge of the boat and pointed his flashlight into the dark water. “It’s really coming through now.” 

It was shortly after 10 pm on a cloudy December night...