Coral reefs

Australia's spectacular Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its worst bleaching event on record, the country's reef authority reported on Wednesday.

Often dubbed the world's largest living structure, the Great Barrier Reef is a 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long expanse, home to a stunning array of biodiversity including more than 600 types of coral and 1,625 fish species.

The world is not doing enough to protect coral reefs, the United Nations' special envoy for the ocean said Tuesday in defense of the marine ecosystems that protect biodiversity, sustain underwater life and produce some of the oxygen we breathe.

Fish that have lost food due to mass coral bleaching are getting into more unnecessary fights, causing them to expend precious energy and potentially threatening their survival, new research said on Jan 3.

With the future of the world's coral reefs threatened by climate change, a team of researchers studied how a mass bleaching event affected 38 species of butterflyfish.

Parts of Australia's beleaguered Great Barrier Reef now have the highest levels of coral cover seen in decades, a government report said Thursday, suggesting the aquatic wonder could survive given the chance.

Out of 5,610 identified coral species, an estimated 232 are threatened with extinction

The vital underwater coral bridge between the Mediterranean and Marmara Sea is expected to be fully restored by 2024, thanks to DP World Yarımca's Yellow Coral Conservation Project that is being carried out with Istanbul University and the Marine Life Conservation Society (DYKD).

Scientists have discovered a vast reef of "pristine" rose-shaped corals apparently unharmed by climate change in deep water off the coast of Tahiti, UNESCO announced on Jan. 21.

Mapping approximately three kilometers (two miles) long and up to 65 meters (213 feet) wide, UNESCO said it was "one of the most extensive healthy coral reefs on record."

The Great Barrier Reef's outlook remains "very poor" despite coral recovery over the past year, Australian government scientists said on July 19, just days before a UNESCO ruling on the site's world heritage status.

The Great Barrier Reef should be added to a list of "in danger" World Heritage Sites, a U.N. committee recommended on June 22, prompting an angry response from Australia which said it had been blindsided by the move and blamed political interference.

As muddy rainwater surged from Hawaii's steep seaside mountains and inundated residential communities last month, the damage caused by flooding was obvious: Houses were destroyed and businesses swamped, landslides covered highways and raging rivers and streams were clogged with debris.