Sixty-pound concrete “lotus” blocks are going into the sea off Malaysia’s Pom Pom Island as divers try to give a shattered coral reef a place to grow again.

On April 15, divers with the Tropical Research and Conservation Center, or Tracc, assembled one of the modular artificial reefs on the seafloor near Pom Pom Island in northeastern Malaysia, The New York Times reported.

The structure was built from textured concrete pieces made with 3D-printed molds. It stood about 0.9 metres tall and 3 metres wide.

The site sits in the Coral Triangle, one of the most biodiverse marine regions on Earth. Around Pom Pom Island, decades of illegal blast fishing have badly damaged parts of the seafloor.

Homemade dynamite can make catching fish easier in the short term, but it also destroys the coral habitat that fish and other marine life rely on.

Over the past two years, Tracc has placed more than 60 of the concrete reef structures around the island, the Times reported. Each one weighs about half a ton and costs around $5,000.

The design has ridged surfaces to help coral attach and openings that give fish cover from predators.

Less than 18 months after the first structure was installed, Tracc said 500 young corals had taken hold. It also said fish numbers and diversity nearby had risen significantly.

According to the Times, Reef Check Malaysia says the country has lost about 20 percent of its coral cover in recent years, mostly because rising ocean temperatures have worsened bleaching.

Researchers say artificial reefs are not a magic fix. Some marine species that burrow into natural reef surfaces may not do as well on concrete, and scientists have said restoration projects cannot replace the need to cut planet-heating pollution.

Still, in places where reefs have already been damaged by explosives, storms or severe degradation, rebuilding habitat can help start recovery.

The Times reported that Tracc plans to add another 100 structures near Pom Pom Island. Half of that work is backed by a $100,000 grant from the Coral Research and Development Accelerator Platform, a nonprofit based in Saudi Arabia.

The group is also looking at using the same approach off Tioman Island, where reefs have been battered by monsoonal storms.

Researchers are monitoring what settles on the new structures, including corals, oysters and sponges. The tracking is aimed at showing if the artificial reefs can hold up in harsher conditions and support marine life.

“The seabed here is like a desert, and this is one structure bringing life back,” said Robin Philippo, managing director of the Tropical Research and Conservation Center.

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