For 30 years Greg Asner used high-tech satellite, airborne and field technology to measure the scope of land and reef problems in Hawaii.

Now, he’s transitioning into the next phase of his scientific journey.

Arizona State University on Monday announced the creation of a new $25 million initiative that aims to preserve and restore the vitality to Hawaii’s declining coral reefs.

“I’ve finally got the backing to turn the diagnostic work into action,” said Asner, the project’s leader, who became the director of ASU’s Center for Biological Diversity and Conservation Science five years ago.

While ‘Ako‘ako‘a, as the project is called, further expands the diagnostic work, it will largely focus on interventions designed to help Hawaii’s corals survive as climate change threatens to undermine the world’s reefs.

For now, the project will work on the 120-mile stretch of coral reef on the western side of Hawaii island, one of the largest coral communities in the Hawaiian archipelago.

“This is the largest single tract of reef in the islands. It is longer than the entire coastline of Kauai,” Asner said.

The funding also will help pay for a new state-of-the-art coral research and propagation facility known as the Ridge to Reef Restoration Center in Kailua-Kona.

The center, located at the state’s Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park, is under construction in partnership with a land restoration organization called Terraformation. When completed, the center will be the largest coral nursery in the world, Asner said, capable of housing 300,000 coral colonies at one time and as many as 1 million a year.

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a memorandum of agreement last week making the state Division of Aquatic Resources a partner in the effort.

DAR Administrator Brian Neilson said the initiative represents “a powerful path forward for the future.”

“Restoring and enhancing our coral reefs takes a fusion of stewardship, management and high-tech science. ‘Ako‘ako‘a will be a major example of this blended process for west Hawaii,” Neilson said in a statement.

Asner said the project will focus on three general areas: the prevention of land-based pollution; reducing overfishing from the reef; and using science to help make reefs more resilient in the face of warming waters, ocean acidification and coral bleaching caused by climate change.

All three areas are contributing to a steady decline of Hawaii’s coral reefs.

In 2020 Asner’s lab created the first detailed maps of nearly all the nearshore coral reefs of the main Hawaiian island. Flying a turbo-prop twin engine plane, the scientist deployed laser-guided imaging spectroscopy to take pictures of the reef up to a depth of 50 feet.

The resulting study found vast areas of decline and degradation directly linked to onshore development, overfishing and increasing water heat waves.

In the past 15 years, the reefs of South Kona have lost two-thirds of its reef fish, a reflection of the coral degradation, Asner said

The most concerning effect on the future of corals are the warming oceans. Hawaii experienced serious bleaching in 2015 and 2019, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting heat waves every year by 2040.

With El Nino already underway, 2023 could be another devastating year for corals in Hawaii, Asner said.

While the reefs of West Hawaii “are in far better shape than those of Oahu, they are in far worse shape than they were when I was a kid,” he said. “We have to try to intervene now before we lose too much. We have to prepare for a warmer climate.”

The Ridge to Reef Restoration Center will be the hub for testing corals and new propagation techniques that aim to make them more resistant to warmer water.

Asner said an estimated 3 million to 4 million corals are broken every year by storms, anchor damage, ship groundings and other reasons. These broken corals are now dying, he said, but they could be saved for experimentation, propagation and replanting in nearshore waters.

The largest part of the ‘Ako‘ako‘a funding — $15 million — was donated by the Dorrance family and Dorrance Family Foundation. Members of the Dorrance family live in Arizona and the Big Island. Other funds are from U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz’s office, the state Division of Aquatic Resources, NOAA and ASU.

This is the latest in a recent string of initiatives aimed at restoring Hawaii’s reefs.

In April, NOAA announced the funding of two projects — $9 million to an effort to revive and create coral nurseries off Waikiki, and $8 million to use the traditional ridge-to-reef ahupuaa strategy to combat habitat degradation in and around Maunalua Bay.

Meanwhile, scientists with the University of Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, and Applied Research Laboratory are working to create a part-artificial, part-natural reef structure for Oahu’s windward coast in a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.