Earth Protect Blog

The longest and most widespread coral bleaching event on record has reached reefs near at least 38 countries and island groups, according to the latest report from NOAA's Coral Reef Watch and other research. Parts of many coral reefs have died, becoming ghostly underwater graveyards. They ...

The pillar coral looks amazing when seen under Caribbean waters. It grows in clusters, forming reefs that resemble groups of smokestacks stretching up from the seafloor. Marine researcher Kristen Marhaver describes the effect as “a vertical fuzzy shag carpet.” Pillar corals are among the corals wor...

Here's what we know about white-band disease: It has already killed up to 95 percent of the Caribbean's reef-building elkhorn and staghorn corals, and it's caused by an infectious bacteria that seems to be transmitted through the water and by coral-eating snails.   Here's what we don't know: ...

Just around the corner from Steve Palumbi's office at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station is a small, unmarked room with white cinder block walls. The metal shelves are coated with the white crust that metal grows when it's exposed to a salty breeze, and are stacked high with fish tanks...

Just past Johnny Depp's private island in the Caribbean sits Lee Stocking Island, a little piece of paradise that's going to hell. The coral reefs that surround it are some of the healthiest in the Atlantic. And they're dying. They're dying in so many different ways, from so many different causes, ...

Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) at James Cook University are engaging social science to help solve some of the world’s biggest environmental problems. Dr Christina Hicks, an interdisciplinary social science fellow at the ARC CoECRS, holds a joint positi...

It is estimated that coral reefs cover around 284,000 square kilometers providing a habitat for thousands of species to live. And unless you've snorkeled in some of these underwater habitats, or perhaps have seen a Planet Earth documentary, most of us have never experienced these natural wonders. B...

The program director said the effort would help scientists analyze ecosystems and alert the international community about its preservation. However, the novelty is also considered a publicity stunt to give Google the advantage over the competition. The company’s mapping service has been abando...

Coral Reefs around the world are under attack due to human activities. Deforestation, overfishing, global warming, climate change, warmer waters, and the decrease in water PH are destroying this beautiful marine world.   An entire ecosystem lives beneath the water’s surface. Sea Anemones live...

by Greg Stone With his jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, oceanographer David Gallo strikes us with wonder and exposes how little we know about what lies below the surface of the ocean. The ocean is the planet's largest habitat, covering more than three-quarters of its surface, yet most...

Researchers have uncovered a pattern of gene activity that enables some corals to survive in higher temperatures. The finding suggests a way to predict how different corals will fare in the warmer waters expected to result from climate change over the coming decades. Such information could help to f...

  Australia's Great Barrier Reef is a glittering gem — the world's largest coral reef ecosystem — chock-full of diverse marine life. But new research shows it is also in steep decline, with half of the reef vanishing in the past 27 years. Katharina Fabricius, a coral reef ecologist at the Aus...

Corals may be better placed to cope with the gradual acidification of the world's oceans than previously thought -- giving rise to hopes that coral reefs might escape climatic devastation. In new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change, an international scientific team has identifie...

In March 2010 an outbreak of a disease called acute Montipora White Syndrome (MWS) was discovered affecting coral reefs in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. Follow-up surveys found that the disease left trails of rubble in its wake. It was estimated that over 100 colonies of rice coral (Montipora capitata) died du...

A study by the University of Exeter provides the first evidence that coral reefs can recover from the devastating effects of climate change. Published Jan. 11, 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, the research shows for the first time that coral reefs located in marine reserves can recover from the impacts...

By Ryan P. Moyer November 2009       Coral reefs are uniquely complex ecosystems in that they are defined by the underlying geologic structures ("reefs") that are constructed primarily by calcifying organisms (mostly coral and algae). Coral-reef habit...

SAN FRANCISCO, California -- The Center for   has formally notified the National Marine Fisheries Service of its intent to sue the agency for its failure to respond to a petition seeking to protect 83 imperiled coral species under the Endangered Species Act. These corals, all of which occur in ...

Scientists find new creatures of Australian deep reported, Sydney (AFP) Jan 18, 2009 A joint US-Australian team spent a month in deep waters off the coast of the southern island of Tasmania to "search for life deeper than any previous voyage in Australian waters," lead researcher Ron Thresher said....