coral

It’s a real enigma: Humans aren’t the only thing that’s killing coral–a certain variety of seaweed is doing the same thing, in a battle beneath the sea. Scientists for the first time have identified and mapped the chemical structure of molecules used by certain species of marine seaweed to kill or inhibit the growth of reef-building coral.

Chemicals found on the surfaces of several species of seaweed have been shown to harm coral, suggesting that competition between these species could be a factor in the worldwide decline–and lack of recovery– of coral reefs.
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Both hope & despair – Hopes have grown dimmer that coral reefs might be able to survive (NOTE: Subscribers can still listen to this show), and recover from, bleaching caused by climate change may have grown dimmer for certain coral species, so it’s wonderful news that a huge area of reefs with deep-sea corals has been discovered in the Mediterranean, off the shore of Israel.
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Why we should care – Alas, more bad news: Coral reefs are turning white and dying. This not only bad for the fish that depend on them, it’s bad for humans: The resulting lost in tourism could cost millions of dollars. A single large coral reef can be worth between $130,000 to $1.2 million a year to the country it’s part of.
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We had a full moon just a few nights ago. In the Florida Keys, the August full moon is the setting for an incredible secret event: the annual spawning for the elkhorn, staghorn, boulder star coral, which are some of the most threatened corals in the world.

“We’ve been at this for quite a while, and each year we learn a little bit more about these corals,” says biologist Margaret Miller. “Unfortunately, we only have one opportunity a year to observe these corals spawning.” Researchers have learned to predict the narrow time frame during which these corals will be spawning, which is during the late evening hours over the week or so after the full moon in August.
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