Coral reef fish are more likely to engage in risky behaviour and be unable to identify predators if they swim in waters contaminated with petroleum-based oil, researchers said. Concentrations equivalent to only “a couple of drops in a swimming pool” could be enough to impair their judgement, scientists said in the study published Tuesday in … Read more
Bleaching has damaged the world’s northernmost coral reef in Japan, a researcher said Tuesday, the latest example of a global phenomenon scientists have attributed to high ocean temperatures. Healthy coral reefs protect shores from storms and offer habitats for fish and other marine life, including ecologically and economically important species. After coral dies, reefs quickly … Read more
Coral bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is worse than first thought and the impact will accelerate unless global greenhouse gas emissions are cut, scientists said Monday. The 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) World Heritage-listed reef suffered its most severe bleaching on record last year due to warming sea temperatures during March and April. Initial aerial and in-water … Read more
Low-oxygen areas of the ocean known as dead zones threaten hundreds of coral reefs worldwide, fragile ecosystems already struggling because of climate change and pollution, researchers said Monday. Although dead zones are not typically considered top killers of coral reefs, they may be far more common than previously thought, according to a study in the … Read more
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may never recover from last year’s warming-driven coral bleaching, said a study Wednesday that called for urgent action in the face of ineffective conservation efforts. Record-high temperatures in 2015 and 2016 drove an unprecedented bleaching episode, which occurs when stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide … Read more
A British-owned cruise ship has smashed into and damaged pristine coral reefs in a remote corner of Indonesia known as one of the world’s most biodiverse marine habitats, researchers and officials said Tuesday. Raja Ampat in eastern Indonesia has long been a top attraction for intrepid travellers and avid divers, home to palm-fringed islands surrounded … Read more