June 12, 2020 By Elizabeth Claire Alberts Mongabay
From high above, the blue sea looks like it’s speckled with tiny white dots. But a closer look reveals more: each dot is actually a sea turtle swimming toward the shore of a coral cay. There are thousands of them. Over the course of the nesting season, about 64,000 landed on the beach.
June 9, 2020 Modern Diplomacy
Coral reefs are being killed by the climate crisis, which is leading to rising sea temperatures. “Cryopreservation”, a pioneering scientific technique, could be one way to help save them.
June 4, 2020 By Sarah Gibbens National Geographic
Despite their importance, warming waters, pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing, and physical destruction are killing coral reefs around the world. Schemes to save those reefs are as creative as they are varied; most recently, scientists released data showing that marine protected areas can help save reefs if they are placed in just the right spots. Genetics is also becoming a larger area of coral research, giving scientists hope they might one day restore reefs with more heat tolerant coral.
May 31, 2020 By Allison Hirschlag The Washington Post
The Great Barrier Reef covers nearly 865 million acres off the coast of Australia, which means approximately 350 billion starfish inhabit it. The starfish, the most fertile invertebrate in the world, stripped 150 reefs of coral within the Great Barrier system and damaged 500 more in just a few years.
April 30, 2020 By Natalie Hunter-Smith oceanographic
After consecutive years of coastal development, the ongoing pressure of tourism, bleaching events and escalating climate change, the reef communities are declining. The coral rubble sweeps into the waves, distorting that instantly recognisable blue. However, on the small volcanic island of Tahiti, in the Mo’orea Island lagoon, a group of young ocean lovers has decided to do something to try and protect their paradise.