Sea cucumbers have been overharvested for centuries. At the same time, coral reefs have declined as well. Research suggests that saving the former may help restore the latter.
Mark Gibbs, Australian Institute of Marine Science
Around the world, coral reefs are suffering. But scientists in high-income nations are developing new ways to build coral resilience. We have a duty to share our skills and build capacity elsewhere.
Overall, coastal habitat restoration greatly increases animal numbers and diversity. But not all projects deliver the goods and we need to find out why.
Healthy corals like these on Australia’s Lady Elliot Reef could disappear by the 2030s if climate change is not curbed.
Rebecca Spindler
Just as the world’s zoos breed critically endangered animals in captivity to repopulate the wild, scientists are building a global effort to freeze corals for reef restoration.
Coral bleaching in a shallow lagoon of French Polynesia.
Damsea/Shutterstock
Artificial reef stars have been added to damaged coral reefs in Sulawesi, Indonesia. A new study shows that within just four years, restored reefs are thriving as much as healthy reefs.
The best strategy to protecting Earth’s coral reefs is to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions. But in the meantime, we must urgently make corals more resilient.
Tracked hawksbill turtles revealed that they feed at depths of 30-60 metres on remote banks of the Chagos Archipelago.
Jeanne A Mortimer
Photogrammetry, a technique where 3D information is extracted from photographs, is reducing the guesswork in counting – and understanding – the world below the ocean surface.
The bow of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Duane, a decommissioned ship deliberately sunk off Florida to serve as an artificial reef.
Stephen Frink via Getty Images
Artificial reefs are structures that humans put in place underwater that create habitat for sea life. A new study shows for the first time how much of the US ocean floor they cover.
Fish swim in a reef at Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.
AP Photo/Jacob Asher
Reef sculptures are a form of artifical reef: man-made structures placed into an aquatic environment to mimic certain characteristics of a natural reef.
A photo of bleached coral in Raja Ampat, West Papua.
(Shutterstock)
Severe bleaching is forecast to hit 12 Indonesian marine protected areas every year by 2030 – then spread to other areas. Here’s what locals, experts and the government say we need to do to save them.
Nature’s ultimate coral predator could benefit from climate change by surviving heatwaves and lie in wait for the right moment to feast on the reef.
A bleaching event at a reef in Key Largo, Fla. The complex interplay of temperature and cloud cover is at the heart of cloral bleaching events.
(Liv Williamson/University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science via AP)
Understanding how both cloud cover and temperature work to promote coral bleaching provides valuable insight into how reefs will change over various climate scenarios.
Coral impacted by excess nutrients in the Great Barrier Reef.
Ashly McMahon