Corals bred in a zoo have joined Europe’s largest reef. This is offering scientists hope

ARNHEM, Netherlands — Just like the animals on Noah’s Ark, the corals arrived in a pair. On Monday, divers with gloved hands gently nestled the self-bred corals from the World Coral Conservatory project among their cousins in Europe’s largest coral reef at the Burgers’ Zoo in the Netherlands. “This is the first project where we … Read more

Dredging of Puerto Rico port begins as environmentalists warn of threat

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A $62 million project to dredge Puerto Rico’s biggest and most important seaport began Wednesday amid fierce opposition from environmentalists and a pending lawsuit. Crews with California-based Curtin Maritime will remove nearly 3 million cubic yards (76 million cubic feet) of marine floor to open the San Juan Bay to … Read more

A Discarded Plan to Build Underwater Cities Will Give Coral Reefs New Life

A combination of AI, a wild 1970s plan to build underwater cities, and a designer creating furniture on the seabed around the Bahamas might be the solution to the widespread destruction of coral reefs. It could even save the world from coastal erosion. Industrial designer Tom Dixon and technologist Suhair Khan, founder of AI incubator … Read more

As Mexico marks conservation day, advocates say it takes too long to list vulnerable species

MEXICO CITY — Residents of Mexico’s Caribbean reef island of Banco Chinchorro near Belize have hunted the meat and salmon-pink shells of queen conch for generations. As populations have shrunk in recent decades, Mexico has enforced limits and bans on catching the shellfish. The species has continued to decline despite these measures, which included a … Read more

Scientists Have Been Freezing Corals for Decades. Now They’re Learning How to Wake Them Up

This story originally appeared in Hakai and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Arah Narida leans over a microscope to gaze into a plastic petri dish containing a hood coral. The animal—a pebbled blue-white disk roughly half the size of a pencil eraser—is a marvel. Just three weeks ago, the coral was smaller than … Read more