Coral comeback: Reef 'seeding' in the Caribbean
Tuesday, February 26, 2013 - 16:30
in Earth & Climate
Mats of algae and seaweed have shrouded the once thick coral in shallow reefs off Jamaica's north coast. Warm ocean waters have bleached out the coral, and in a cascade of ecological decline, the sea urchins and plant-eating reef fish have mostly vanished, replaced by snails and worms that bore through coral skeletons.