Coral Reefs

A raccoon butterflyfish on a coral reef in Egypt's Red Sea. The vast majority of aquarium fish come from countries with known cyanide fishing problems.

Soon, You Could Be Able to Tell if Your Aquarium Fish Was Caught With Cyanide

A new handheld detector aims to root out this widespread, destructive practice

Andrew Altieri of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama conducts a survey where more than 90 percent of the coral reef has died due to hypoxia.

Coral Reefs Now Face Deep Water Dead Zones, As If Climate Change Were Not Enough

A Smithsonian scientist says there may be a greater prevalence of undocumented oxygen-starved deep coastal waters

A diver documents dead coral in the Great Barrier Reef near Lizard Island in May 2016 after a bleaching event.

Repeat Bleaching Destroys Massive Swaths of the Great Barrier Reef

Rising ocean temperatures have taken a toll on the World Heritage Area

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Scotland’s Newest Nature Trails Are Underwater

The Scottish Wildlife Trust is putting snorkelers up close with the country’s marine wildlife

Bleached coral discovered earlier this month at Maureen's Cove in the Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef Braces for Another Massive Bleaching Event

After the worst die-off in the reef's history in 2016, scientists are worried that high sea temperatures will affect the area again

Seagrass grows near a village in the Spermonde Archipelago in Indonesia. Researchers there recently discovered that coastal areas with seagrass have less bacteria than grassless areas.

Seagrasses Reduce Bacteria in Polluted Waters

A new study suggests the mesmerizing fields could be important for the health of humans and sea creatures alike

Just around the corner from the Great Barrier Reef, the ocean has been hiding a massive, ancient landslide.

Scientists Discovered a Gigantic, 300,000-Year-Old Landslide Under the Ocean

Long ago, an almost inconceivable amount of sand shifted, changing the surface of the sea floor

A new study on grey reef sharks turned up a few surprises.

Ocean Preserves Keep Fishing Boats Away from Grey Reef Sharks

Scientists tracked hundreds of reef sharks to find that massive marine refuges can work—with one caveat

From top left: (A and B) The new species Pylopaguropsis mollymullerae in Bonaire; (C and E) the new species in a den with a broad banded moray (D) the new species' coral ledge habitat.

Smithsonian Scientist and a Reef-Diving Grandmother Team Up in Discovery of New Hermit Crab

A new species of hermit crab is named to honor her 7-year-old granddaughter Molly

Though coral usually needs light to thrive, the Amazon Reef survives despite murky waters.

Underwater Images Give First Glimpse of Newly Discovered Brazilian Reef

The Amazon Reef once shocked scientists. Now, for the first time, we know what it looks like

Creatures so small that they had been overlooked in the past—sea urchins, Echinometra viridis, (above) the size of ping-pong balls and a diminutive species of parrotfish, Scarus iseri, were grazing algae on the reef.

These Itsy-Bitsy Herbivores Could Stage a Huge Coral Reef Rescue

Tiny parrotfish and sea urchins can take over the job of their larger cousins to keep a reef free of algae

This year's science left us speechless and maybe a tiny bit more knowledgeable.

The Top 9 Baffling, Humbling, Mind-Blowing Science Stories of 2016

From gravity's song to the evolutionary secrets of dogs, this year unlocked a treasure trove of scientific discovery

This year, the Great Barrier Reef was found to be hiding another reef beneath it.

Top Eight Ocean Stories That Made Waves in 2016

2016 wasn't all bad: Stubborn environmental problems were livened up thanks to new solutions, “gee whiz” discoveries and mysterious orbs

Kure Atoll, the northernmost reef in the Hawaiian archipelago, hosts mesophotic reefs with the most species unique to a specific location found in any marine ecosystem on Earth.

Here’s What Scientists Found in Hawaii’s Mysterious “Twilight Zone”

Deep coral reefs reveal their secrets in a study two decades in the making

A reef off the coast of Bonaire

Jacques Cousteau's Grandson Is 3D Printing Coral Reefs

Fabien Cousteau, descendant of the famous sea explorer, is working on a project to bring 3D printed coral reefs to the Caribbean island of Bonaire

LiDAR imaging of the bioherms beyond the Great Barrier Reef, which is marked in red.

The Great Barrier Reef Has Been Hiding Another Massive Reef

The iconic coral reef sits above an even deeper one

Eerie Video Shows How Coral Bleaches

Time-lapse video captures the coral's convulsions while it expels the algae that give it color

Sharks are a broad and diverse group of species, but in the public imagination we tend to treat them all the same.

Humans Have Promoted the Reef Shark to Apex Predator

How these diverse predators ended up getting all the credit

An up close view of coral

Watch Corals in Action With New Underwater Microscope

The Benthic Underwater Microscope opens up a whole new age of ocean exploration

An Airbus A300 jumbo jet like this has been sunk off the Turkish coast to create an artificial reef.

Turkey Sunk an Airplane to Turn It Into a Reef

An Airbus jumbo jet will soon become home to all sorts of sea life

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