WASHINGTON In a desperate attempt to protect Great Barrier Reef corals from bleaching, Australian researchers have come up with a plan to circulate cool ocean water onto a handful of critical reef sites.

To be clear, no one is proposing this as a solution to whats threatening Earths largest living structure , which has been hammered in recent years by warmer ocean temperatures fueled by climate change and the El Nio effect. The hope, rather, is to buy time and build resilience.

Sheriden Morris , managing director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre , the nonprofit behind the plan, told The Huffington Post that the $9 million pilot project aims to prevent the loss of coral species by staving off bleaching in select, high-diversity areas. Pontoons, equipped with low-energy solar technology, would draw up adjacent water from depths of up to 130 feet where water temperatures are slightly cooler and flood it onto shallow reefs.

Its very localized, Morris said. This isnt going to save the reef. All the efforts to improve climate change need to happen at the same time. This is just protecting some of those complex areas.

While some critics have dismissed the plan as a Band-Aid , ridiculous and a quick-fix gimmick , Morris argues that the scientific community must do more than simply wring its hands.

As pressures increase, we have to increase our protection agenda, she told HuffPost. We have to actually start doing applied approaches for protections. Otherwise, if we do come out the other side and we do get successful international control of climate and the Paris Agreement does hold we might get to the other end and have lost some of these assets already.