The aspiring ‘coral factory’ restoring reefs wrecked by climate change His résumé may be unconventional, observers say, but he possesses a type of practical expertise that is growing in currency as people seek out concrete and accessible ways of acting against climate change.While other coral restoration groups might rely on a lab to “fragment” live coral that is in turn used for growing, he searches for broken pieces of coral in existing reefs and affixes them to the rocks using water-resistant, animal-friendly glue.Bending over to pick up a rock where he had affixed a coral fragment several weeks earlier, he murmured, “My little acropora.” Abdullah squinted, his eyes gray and his face lined and leathery from years in the sun.He spent two decades experimenting with how to grow them in the ocean, along the way alienating most of his friends, getting divorced from his wife and nearly bankrupting himself, he recalled.“But that’s changing.” Faced with catastrophes like the mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, scientists are seeking out the expertise of practitioners — diving instructors, tour operators, local fishermen — who know the reefs in their areas better than anyone else."