'Test-tube coral babies' may mend reefs

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In this photo provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau Margaret Miller an ecologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service harvests coral eggs and sperm Saturday Aug. 12 2006 during a coral spawn in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off  ...
In this photo, provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, Margaret Miller, an ecologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, harvests coral eggs and sperm, Saturday, Aug. 12, 2006, during a coral spawn in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary off Key Largo, Fla. Miller and a team of researchers are artificially fertilizing eggs and sperm to create coral larvae that is subsequently to be planted on the site of a 1984 ship grounding in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The team hopes the larvae will mature into polyps, thus providing the foundation for growth of new coral. (AP Photo/Florida Keys News Bureau, Bob Care)

(AP) -- Marine scientists hope "test-tube coral babies" will take root to help restore a tract of reef ravaged by a 1984 ship grounding in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.


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