According to a recent report, the world has reached its first climate change tipping point. Scientists point to the widespread bleaching of coral reefs due to rising ocean temperatures. Cristian Benavides reports on the Reefline, a manmade art installation and restoration project.
For years, scientists and the U.N. have spoken about critical climate tipping points that, if crossed, could potentially cause irreversible changes to the planet and accelerate climate change. According to a report published Monday by researchers at the University of Exeter, the first tipping point has likely already been reached for coral reefs. CBS News senior coordinating producer for climate and environmental coverage Tracy Wholf explains.
Coral reefs around the globe have for years suffered publicly in warming oceans, periodically making headlines when iconic underwater landscapes lose their colors and wither during repeated mass bleaching events caused by climate change. Now, reefs are the first environmental system on Earth to pass a climate “tipping point,” according to a new report by climate scientists who call the situation an “unprecedented crisis.”
Researchers at the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute in England have released their second Global Tipping Points report, which examines some of the fundamental processes that support life on this planet in terms of their proximity to benchmarks that may signal permanent damage.
“Tipping points represent critical thresholds in Earth’s climate system where small changes can lead to significant, often irreversible consequences,” the authors said in their report. Steve Smith, a research fellow at the Global Systems Institute and one of the report’s co-authors, told CBS News that tipping points are “all about that point at which change becomes self-propelling, kind of a self-accelerating change.”
Bleached coral is seen at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary in the Gulf of Mexico on Sept. 17, 2023.
LM Otero / AP
The report, published Sunday, comes three years after the institute released its first iteration in 2022 and about a month before the United Nations hosts COP30, an annual climate change conference, in Belém, Brazil, a city in the Amazon rainforest that is itself an example of a major global ecosystem on the brink of a climate emergency. Tim Lenton, the director of the Global Systems Institute and lead author of the report, said in a statement that he hopes his team’s findings make it onto the agenda.
“We are rapidly approaching multiple Earth system tipping points that could transform our world, with devastating consequences for people and nature,” his statement said. “This demands immediate, unprecedented action from leaders at COP30 and policymakers worldwide.”
The 2015 Paris Agreement set upper limits for global warming at 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius — between 2.7 and 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit — above average levels in preindustrial times. But leaders have repeatedly warned in the years since that countries are falling short of the emissions targets necessary to meet those temperature goals, with the U.N. declaring greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere reached all-time highs in 2023. By 2024, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported temperatures had risen to about 1.4 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average.
“A new reality”
Higher ocean temperatures have already degraded coral reefs, which are crucial for marine life and provide habitats for roughly one-fourth of all underwater species. The new report points out that reefs also support the livelihoods of about a billion people, so their deterioration is as much an economic threat as an environmental one.
Scientists have determined that the “tipping point” for coral reefs begins when global warming reaches about 1.2 degrees Celsius, with somewhere between 70 and 90% of coral dying when that number climbs to 1.5 degrees.
“We’re very confident that, unfortunately, we’re in the middle of the coral reef dieback,” Smith said, which, he explained, essentially means “the collapse of coral reefs worldwide.”
Reef death is often catalyzed by bleaching, when heat stress causes coral to purge the colorful algae that sustains it and, in turn, become pale and weak. If the stress persists and bleaching is severe or prolonged, the coral can completely break down.
In this image provide by NOAA, a fish swims near coral showing signs of bleaching off the coast of Islamorada, Florida, on July 23, 2023.
Andrew Ibarra / National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via AP
The International Coral Reef Initiative announced in April that an estimated 84% of the world’s coral reefs were under heat stress. As the new report notes, this is “the most extensive and intense” mass bleaching event ever recorded.
Small pockets of coral are expected to survive, Smith said, and preserving them while minimizing the progression of warming temperatures should be everyone’s top priority.
“We’re in a new reality whereby we can now say that we’ve passed the first major climate tipping point, which is the coral reefs,” he said. “And obviously we’ll have to, as we say, try to reduce the damage. The quicker that we can decarbonize and take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere, the better.”
Ice sheets, ocean currents and the Amazon rainforest
Other environmental systems are on the verge of passing their tipping points, too, according to the report. In addition to coral reefs, it cited the potentially catastrophic effects of a warming world on the Amazon rainforest, ocean currents that influence weather patterns, and glaciers like the Greenland ice sheet, which is currently melting and shedding the equivalent of three Niagara Falls’ worth of freshwater into the North Atlantic every hour.
“It’s a race against time, really,” said Smith. “We have to transform the whole energetic basis of society within a generation, away from fossil fuels and toward this cleaner, safer future to avoid these further tipping points beyond coral reefs and the devastating consequences that they would bring.”
The report acknowledged meaningful headway has been made in the shift toward renewable energy, highlighting “positive tipping points” that have been crossed as the use of electric vehicles, solar power and wind power becomes more widespread. The rise of solar power, in particular, is one positive transition that Smith singled out as especially “remarkable” — although he emphasized that more still needs to be done, urgently, to bring the Earth back on track.
“Getting that into the heads of our senior decision-makers is going to be important,” said Smith, “because what is traditionally thought of as high impact, low likelihood events, they’re actually becoming high impact, high likelihood, if we don’t do something now.”
New York — They are animals without eyes or the ability to speak, but if the live corals at the New York Aquarium could talk, they would have quite a story.
Aaron Brett, a coral expert with the aquarium, can tell their story for them.
Earlier this year, somewhere in Indonesia, about 200 coral pieces were plucked from the water, packaged up, and sent by plane to the U.S., where they were discovered and seized in May by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, Brett explains.
Trading in coral is highly restricted. According to the aquarium, the seized coral is protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international conservation agreement that targets the illegal wildlife trade.
“They were probably going to pet shops,” Brett told CBS News.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, there are two dozen coral species that are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Of those, 22 are listed as threatened and two as endangered.
After being seized, federal authorities asked if the New York Aquarium could care for the corals, which were in poor health. In 2019, the aquarium also received confiscated coral from USFW. Brett describes the aquarium as a kind of “coral hospital.”
“These animals were in transit for five days,” Brett said. “If there was no other public aquarium institution that could take them, they would die.”
Aquarium staff took CBS News behind the scenes to the tank where they have been supporting their recovery.
“A lot of them had lost a lot of their color, and they weren’t looking great,” Brett said.
Since May, many of the corals have done so well that they have been moved to public display.
“We have to be really careful,” said Cora Monroe, a senior aquarist, who helps the corals transition to bigger tanks. “…One of the main reasons why we have them here is to educate people. They are ambassadors for their species out in the wild.”
Their unexpected journey is a way for visitors to see how the illegal wildlife trade threatens species and ecosystems around the globe. About 25% of marine life depends on coral reefs, according to the NOAA.
“The most important thing to know, is knowing where your animals are coming from,” Brett said.
New data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has scientists ringing alarm bells about the health of the world’s oceans. Seventy-seven percent of the world’s coral reefs have experienced “bleaching-level heat stress” over the last 22 months. Derek Manzello, coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program, joins CBS News to dive deeper into the research.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A global shark census found in 2018 that the population of five main reef shark species, which are key to balancing the ecosystem of coral reefs, had declined 63%. Ben Tracy takes a look at a group working to protect these necessary predators.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Vast oceans cover 70% of our planet’s surface, playing a crucial role in human survival by providing food and oxygen and acting as a buffer against climate change. Despite their importance, oceans are increasingly threatened by global warming and human activity, with rising temperatures impacting fragile marine ecosystems.
More than 100 nations, including the United States, have agreed to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, through an initiative known as “30 by 30.” This goal involves establishing Marine Protected Areas, or MPAs, where human activities are limited or prohibited to preserve marine life.
In the Bahamas, all waters are considered a shark sanctuary. On top of that, the island nation has also designated many Marine Protected Areas, all thought to be aiding the recovery of shark populations, which are critical to coral reef health.
Many of these areas are part of an ongoing global shark census called FinPrint. In 2018, that study revealed a 63% decline in the five main species of reef sharks, with overfishing and the shark meat industry partly to blame.
Candace Fields works with FinPrint and is using innovative technology to collect new data to see if these protected areas help reef shark populations rebound.
“These MPAs might be the way to kind of help these sharks come back from the brink a little bit,” she said.
There are more than 18,000 MPAs covering about 8% of the ocean’s surface, according to United Nations data. However, conservation groups claim most are just lines on a map because about two-thirds of them have little to no enforcement.
The Bahamas has strictly enforced no-fishing zones and actively patrols its waters with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. During the patrols, officials ensure compliance with local laws, deterring illegal fishing activities, especially from foreign vessels. Their rigorous approach is supported by advanced technology, including artificial intelligence and vessel tracking.
“We are there 24/7 and if you come we’re gonna catch you,” said Senior Commander William Sturrup, who oversees many of the operations.
“We are there on the front lines as a military. That’s how important it is to our government to protect our marine resources,” he said.
Technology plays a significant role in these efforts, according to Gregg Casad of WildAid, who illustrated the advanced tools used to monitor and protect the ocean.
“This is a big chunk of ocean, right? So we’re using this technology to help focus those patrol efforts,” said Casad.
As the world grapples with the warming climate, oceans play a critical role in regulating Earth’s temperature by absorbing 90% of the excess heat generated by climate change. Their protection is not only essential for marine biodiversity, but also for mitigating broader environmental impacts.
“There’s just tons and tons of reasons that we should work towards keeping the oceans as healthy as possible,” said Fields.
Ben Tracy is CBS News’ senior national and environmental correspondent based in Los Angeles. He reports for all CBS News platforms, including the “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell,” “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Sunday Morning.”
New underwater video was released of a Navy spy plane which overshot a runway in Hawaii and landed in a bay. The video shows the tires of the plane sitting on an ecologically-sensitive reef. The Navy is trying to consider how to safely remove the plane.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Coral reefs play a vital role in the overall health of the planet. And off the coast of Florida, they’re in jeopardy, as the relentless heat continues.
The Coral Restoration Foundation said in one coral reef restoration site off the state’s coast, the extreme temperatures have proved deadly.
“On July 20th, CRF teams visited Sombrero Reef, a restoration site we’ve been working at for over a decade. What we found was unimaginable — 100% coral mortality,” said Phanor Montoya-Mayoa, a restoration program manager at the foundation who has a doctorate in biology. “We have also lost almost all the corals in the Looe Key Nursery in the Lower Keys.”
Sombrero Reef is a protected area off the Florida Keys, just past Marathon. It’s a popular site for snorkelers and divers as the area is home to star corals that are considered endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The Coral Restoration Foundation has been on a mission to restore the reef, spending years planting and protecting various corals.
But extreme heat is deadly for the ocean animals. When ocean temperatures become too warm, the algae that normally live within the coral’s tissues come out, causing the animals to turn white. This is known as coral bleaching. While bleaching events aren’t necessarily 100% fatal for reefs, they do place them under significantly more stress and make them vulnerable, especially to future bleaching events.
“The vibrant coral reefs of Florida, crucial to the local community and the state’s economy, are facing a severe and urgent crisis due to soaring water temperatures,” the foundation says. “The potential loss of coral populations within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is quickly becoming an alarming reality.”
Much of the nation — and the world — has been under the grip of extreme heat this summer. And its impacts go far beyond dangerous heat on land.
In the Florida Keys, ocean temperatures have been unusually high. A buoy off Vaca Key has been seeing temperatures above 93 degrees Fahrenheit — a reading much higher than the monthly average temperature in the area for the entire year. In July, the average temperature for the area is 89.1 degrees Fahrenheit, according to NOAA.
Nearby Peterson Key also saw temperatures above 94 on Monday while even farther north, Butternut Key saw temperatures above 93.
“The corals are pale, it looks like the color’s draining out,” Katey Lesneski, research and monitoring coordinator for NOAA’s Mission: Iconic Reefs, told the Associated Press. “And some individuals are stark white. And we still have more to come.”
This photo provided by the University of Miami Coral Reef Futures Lab shows a bleached flower coral (Eusmilia fastigiata) on July 20, 2023, in the North Dry Rocks Reef off the coast of Key Largo, Florida.
Liv Williamson/University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science via AP
NOAA has raised its coral bleaching warning system to Alert Level 2 for the Florida Keys — the highest of the agency’s five bleaching alert levels. It’s expected to remain that way for at least nine to 12 weeks. According to the AP, such an alert means the average water temperatures have been roughly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal for at least eight straight weeks.
This level was last reached last August, and bleaching events typically peak in late August or September. But this is the first time bleaching to this extent has been seen before Aug. 1, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary research coordinator Andrew Bruckner told the AP.
“We are at least a month ahead of time, if not two months,” Bruckner said, adding that the Florida Keys have lost between 80% and 90% of its reef systems in the last 50 years.
The Upper Keys have not seen as “dramatic declines” as what the Coral Restoration Foundation saw in Sombrero Reef, but the foundation said that what they’ve seen “underscores the urgency of addressing climate change.”
“We are now rescuing as many corals as we can from our nurseries and relocating key genotypes to land-based holding systems, safeguarding our broodstock – potentially, the last lifeline left many of these corals,” Montoya-Maya said.
Florida’s coral reef runs more than 350 miles, protecting the peninsula from storms and providing a staple for the state’s tourism and food industries. According to the state, the system supports more than 71,000 jobs, generating over $6.3 billion for the economy. Without it, the state can suffer economically throughout the year as well as during hurricane season, which could bring increasingly catastrophic storms – without the natural protection in the waters.
R. Scott Winters, the foundation’s CEO who has a doctorate in ecology, evolution and biodiversity, and bioinformatics and computational biology, said that the impact of climate change on coral reefs “is undeniable.”
“This crisis must serve as a wake-up call, emphasizing the need for globally concerted efforts to combat climate change,” Winters said. “…This is not a partisan issue; everyone will be affected. The climate crisis impacts our way of life and all life on Earth.”
Researchers examining the Great Barrier Reef have discovered the coral is infested with a bacteria closely related to chlamydia, which scientists say could help them understand the coral microbiome and its potential impact on coral reef health. What do you think?
“See? Everyone has it.”
Marc Hassett, Haggling Coach
U.S. Blows Itself Up So China Can’t Have It
“Great, now I gotta text all the other underwater ecosystems I also swam in.”
Liliana Kuipers, Request Denier
“That’s what happens when you let just anyone scuba through you.”
The world’s third-largest coral reef just off the Florida Keys was once a vibrant habitat for millions of plants and animals. But an outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease is threatening to destroy it. Scientists are trying to regrow the coral in a lab hundreds of miles away to save it. Manuel Bojorquez takes a look.
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Orlando, Florida — Just off the Florida Keys lies the world’s third-largest coral reef, which was once a vibrant habitat for millions of plants and animals.
But an outbreak of stony coral tissue loss disease threatens to destroy 20 of the 45 species found there, including larger reef-building corals.
“This disease that’s burning through the Florida Keys is an incredible event that’s happening,” said Andrew Stamper, conservation science manager at Disney’s Animals, Science and Environment. “It’s like a wildfire.”
Stamper says that endangers Florida’s fishing industry and food supply.
“Unfortunately, we do not know exactly what is causing this,” he said.
In order to save the reef, scientists have moved some species hundreds of miles away to a lab in Orlando. Scientists at the lab work to simulate breeding conditions — work that is both delicate and painstaking. LED lights replicate the sun and moon cycles. Volunteers feed the coral in water treated to mimic its real habitat.
“This essentially is a gene bank,” said Jim Kinsler, aquarium curator at SeaWorld Orlando. “We’re trying to protect the genetics of these corals so that their offspring can ultimately be returned back to the Florida reef tract.”
The task of relocating the lab-grown coral to the sea is also a delicate task.
Kinsler, who is part of a team of private and public partners operating the Florida Coral Rescue Center, said it’s the first time many of them have been involved “in rescuing an entire ecosystem.”
“We think the real challenge is just growing them out to a size that we can test them in those waters, test their disease resistance, and then propagate the successful corals by the hundreds of thousands — literally,” said Andrew Walker, president of the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
Thanks for reading CBS NEWS.
Create your free account or log in for more features.
A startup in Hong Kong is trying to help coral adapt to the problems humans have caused — with its innovative use of 3D printing and terracotta.
More coral species live in part of Hong Kong’s subtropical water than in the Caribbean, but the swath of the South China Sea used to boast even more natural beauty.
“We believe that this area was a coral paradise,” David Baker, a coral ecologist at the University of Hong Kong, told CBS News. “Those who are still with us from the World War II generation, these people tell you the water was crystal clear, that there were coral everywhere.”
But as Hong Kong industrialized, runoff and pollution bled into the waters.
So Baker co-founded Archireef, an eco-engineering startup, to rebuild the “paradise lost.”
His team, in a world-first, 3D-printed artificial reef tiles made from terracotta. They’re non-toxic and biodegradable. The team placed the tiles on the sandy bottom of a protected bay and seeded them with living coral, and 95% survived in the past two years.
Asked how he came up with the idea, Baker said, “I just thought to myself one evening that, why not tile the sea floor like we would tile a kitchen or bathroom floor?”
The tiles could have global application for coral adaptation, with benefits to humanity as well as ocean life. Reefs protect homes and businesses, breaking up destructive waves from storms. More than 1 billion people depend on coral, which plays an essential role in fisheries, tourism and even medicine.
Scientists predict 70% to 90% of coral around the world will disappear in the next 20 years.
Archireef has now expanded to Abu Dhabi, where it has a new industrial 3D printer.
“We have our own eco-engineering facility,” Vriko Yu, Archireef’s other co-founder, said.
Yu just moved from Hong Kong and aims to help coral move too. The Persian Gulf’s waters can rise to 118 degrees — higher temperatures can kill.
“We can assist migration to help these corals move in deeper waters,” Yu said.
Reef tiles can also help bridge isolated coral communities that are separated because of mass die-offs from climate change.
Visited, available on iOS or Android, is a popular travel app with international traveling users. The app allows users to mark off places they’ve visited, see a custom map of their travels, discover new destinations, set travel goals, and get a personalized printed travel map.
The top 10 snorkeling destinations in the world according to Visited include:
Cancun, Mexico is the most popular snorkeling destination, with expansive coral reefs and a wide variety of marine life in the Caribbean.
Bali, Indonesia has beautiful beaches and hundreds of different marine species. Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, which has 75 percent of the world’s marine life, with almost 600 species.
Cozumel, Mexico offers abundant coral reefs in the warm waters of the Caribbean.
Great Barrier Reef, Australia has the world’s largest coral reef and is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
Phuket, Thailand has crystal-clear waters and ample marine life for snorkeling.
Florida Keys, United States features pristine waters and beautiful snorkeling opportunities.
Red Sea is a saltwater inlet of the Indian Ocean with clear reefs and plentiful sea life for snorkeling off the coast of Egypt.
California, United States features 840 miles (1,352 km) of stunning coastline with snorkeling in many places, including Glass Beach and Monterey.
Cenotes, Mexico has thousands of cenotes – deep water wells – with beautiful snorkeling off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
Phi Phi Islands, Thailand is a group of 6 islands with clear waters and a wide range of marine life that are part of the Coral Triangle.
To see the complete list of the most popular snorkeling destinations and over 50 lists of the top places to visit, download Visited on iOS or Android. Find out more about the top worldwide destinations on the Visited blog.
Secretary of State Blinken tells Scott Pelley about the challenges facing the U.S. around the world; Former GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman says there is “irrefutable” proof of a plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election; Rescuing the world’s coral reefs.
As Hurricane Fiona left a swath of destruction across the Caribbean and North Atlantic this past week, it was a reminder of the devastating power of coastal storms. Scientists are predicting more intense weather because of climate change, but they’re also warning that one of the best existing sources of protection from waves and floods is dying off. By serving as natural buffers, coral reefs prevent billions of dollars in damage to the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The state of Florida, which has been hit by 18 hurricanes over the last 40 years, has one of the largest barrier reefs in the world. But nearly 90% of the living coral in the Florida Keys has disappeared during that time. The situation’s so serious that marine biologists have stepped up their efforts to find innovative ways to try to rescue the reefs. And that’s what our story tonight is about. It involves strange underwater farms, the U.S. Department of Defense, and more than we ever thought we’d need to know about the sex lives of coral.
We left Miami behind us and headed two miles off the coast with marine biologists Andrew Baker and Diego Lirman. They’re old friends and colleagues, professors at the University of Miami, who’ve seen first-hand how the reefs have changed.
Andrew Baker: The whole of the Caribbean– is seeing a lot of coral loss and– and die-off as a result of climate change, but also water quality and– pollution. But, you know, Florida Keys probably leads the way in terms of the sheer amount of coral that’s been lost.
And that’s why, in this spot in the ocean, the University of Miami has built something you’d normally visit on land to buy a tree or a rose bush – a nursery.
Diego Lirman: This is our coral nursery. This is where we– just like you do on land. You grow your corals, you prune them, and then you put them somewhere else on– on a natural reef.
Diego Lirman and Andrew Baker
The water was murky and the current strong as we went to take a look. A nurse shark checked us out, but quickly lost interest. Corals are often confused with rocks, or plants, but they’re actually colonies of tiny animals called polyps, whose calcium carbonate skeletons build the reefs and protect the shores. After a short swim, we came upon an area with 40 of these tree-like structures.
Hanging from them, like Christmas ornaments, are pieces of living coral that have been pruned from healthy colonies all over Florida. They’re positioned close to the surface so they get lots of sunlight and nutrients and occasionally cleaned of macro-algae that can damage them. Andrew Baker explained…
Andrew Baker: The great advantage of these nurseries is they allow us to grow lots of coral tissue very quickly. They grow faster in these trees than they do on the reefs.
Many of the corals growing here are important and threatened Florida species, like Staghorn and Elkhorn. Every diver knows you’re not supposed to touch coral, so it was odd to be handed a clipper and told to start cutting off pieces. We brought the staghorn coral I cut to an area nearby called Rainbow Reef that Professor Lirman and his team began re-planting two-and-a-half years ago.
Correspondent Anderson Cooper with the coral he cut
He showed me how to use a special kind of cement to attach the newly cut pieces to the reef. With the current, it’s a lot harder than it sounds. But even more difficult is making sure these corals don’t get killed off by the same forces that destroyed their predecessors – water pollution, disease, and a phenomenon called “bleaching,” in which coral can lose their color and die because of rising ocean temperatures caused by climate change.
Re-planting the coral
Andrew Baker: We need to make sure that the corals that we put out are not just gonna be the next set of victims for the next bleaching episode, or the next stressor that comes along.
Anderson Cooper: In a sense, it sounds like you’re trying to accelerate the process of natural selection, try to find the corals which are hardier, which can survive in higher temperatures.
Andrew Baker: That’s exactly right.
To do that, Professor Baker and scientists from the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago are using a technique that allows them to determine the future survivability of coral in a few hours, on a boat anchored above the nursery. When we arrived, researchers were putting samples of Elkhorn coral just brought to the surface into these converted party coolers containing increasingly warm water to see which varieties would do best in higher temperatures. Ross Cunning is a research biologist with the Shedd Aquarium.
Ross Cunning: So just like all of us are different genetic individuals, and all of us humans vary in traits like height, all of these different genetic strains of Elkhorn coral will vary naturally in heat tolerance.
Anderson Cooper: So just because it’s all Elkhorn coral, it doesn’t mean it’s all the same genetically.
Ross Cunning: Right. And that’s exactly what we wanna get at is the fine scale individual variation among different Elkhorn corals. Then we can use those corals to optimize restoration programs by planting more of them on the reef.
Ross Cunning
Scientists are also trying to breed the most heat and disease-resistant coral together. It’s called selective breeding. Liv Williamson is a biologist at the University of Miami. Her lab is filled with vats of frozen coral sperm.
Anderson Cooper: So this is coral sperm?
Liv Williamson: This is coral sperm that has been kept at these really, really low temperatures now for a year or more.
Her work is similar to that of domestic animal breeders. She and her team mix the sperm with carefully chosen coral eggs, to create offspring that’ll be more likely to survive outbreaks of disease and rising ocean temperatures.
Anderson Cooper: I never thought I would ask this question. But h– how do coral have sex? (LAUGH)
Liv Williamson: So the idea is that all of the different colonies on a reef. They’re all using cues from the environment to make sure that they release their eggs and sperm all at once so that they’re able to mix with the spawn of other colonies.
The sex life of coral is nothing to write home about. Most spawn only once or twice a year after a full moon. So scientists have to be ready to capture the sperm and eggs at the exact right moment.
Liv Williamson
Liv Williamson: We use very fine mesh nets with a jar at the top. And they slowly float their way up into the jar. And all we have to do is cap off the jar and take it with us. It literally looks like being in a snow globe under water. It’s amazing. It’s totally incredible to be able to see it.
This is where Williamson raises what she calls “the coral babies” she’s bred. The blue light mimics sunlight filtering through the water, helping them grow.
Liv Williamson: This particular brain coral baby that you’re holding right now is actually the offspring of a– coral colony here in Miami that we think is resistant to disease…
Anderson Cooper: So you know the history of these polyps.
Liv Williamson: Yeah, in many cases I collected them as eggs or sperm. Or I put them together to fertilize them– have been there really since– since birth, if you will.
Anderson Cooper: Do you feel, like, warm and cuddly toward coral?
Liv Williamson: I really do. (LAUGH)
Anderson Cooper: Because, I mean, it’s not something that…
Liv Williamson: They don’t seem too warm and cuddly.
Liv Williamson: I show coral baby pictures to people. And they usually don’t want to see them. But– (LAUGHTER)
Cooper and Williamson
Today, they’re growing slowly on small ceramic plates. But they may someday be growing in underwater nurseries and re-populating reefs.
Anderson Cooper: And so this one’s– how old?
Liv Williamson: Al– almost a year old. Corals in general grow really slowly. But that’s part of the problem with their conservation is that while we’re losing these big, old colonies on the reef, some of those are thousands or hundreds of years old. They’ve taken so long to grow. Replacing them isn’t easy.
But with less coral serving as a natural buffer, many communities need more protection right away from increasingly powerful storms that have been battering their shores.
One way researchers hope to restore coral and provide more immediate protection along the coast is to create hybrid reefs. This is a small-scale prototype. The honey-combed structures on the bottom would be made of concrete and are designed to absorb wave energy immediately. The corals on top would provide more and more protection as they grow.
A prototype hybrid reef
Inside this simulator at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, Professor Brian Haus and his team can create the equivalent of a category five hurricane with winds up to 155 miles per hour.
The simulator can test how well different structures and types of coral absorb wave energy and prevent damage on land.
The University of Miami is developing this hybrid reef for DARPA, which is the Pentagon’s research agency. The Defense Department is looking for ways to protect its many military bases near the coast, like Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida which got destroyed by Hurricane Michael in 2018, causing nearly $5 billion in damage. DARPA plans to give the University of Miami up to $20 million to build a hybrid reef off the coast of Florida within the next five years.
Brian Haus
Anderson Cooper: What role does coral play in that, as opposed to just a man-made honeycomb structure?
Brian Haus: Depending on the types of waves and things, you can have anywhere as high as 60% of additional dissipation of wave energy by having corals on top of the structure. They add friction to the surface.
Anderson Cooper: I mean, this isn’t just a man-made structure that is static. because of the coral, it would actually expand. It would continue to grow?
Brian Haus: that’s one of the real exciting things about this. It’s essentially self-healing. And I– if it gets impacted by a storm, it can grow back.
Professors Baker and Lirman will provide the coral on DARPA’s hybrid reef, with specific goals in mind.
Anderson Cooper: They have very ambitious goals for you.
Andrew Baker: They do and I think that reflects the– the scale of the problem, to be honest. We know that, for example, coral reefs are going to be facing increasing warming temperatures. So, here’s a project that’s asking us to try to achieve what corals are gonna face in 20 to 30 years within just a five-year timeframe, and then actually go well beyond that.
Anderson Cooper: So, they’re saying within five years that they want you to be able to find coral that can resist a two-degree centigrade rise in temperatures in the ocean?
Andrew Baker: That’s right. two or even three degrees centigrade warmer temperatures.
Anderson Cooper: Were you surprised that DARPA was interested in your work?
Andrew Baker: We were surprised in the sense that it was the Department of Defense that was the first agency to come forward and say, “Hey, you guys, as a community, why don’t you think big?
DARPA also recently awarded contracts to Rutgers University to create a hybrid reef that’ll use oysters rather than coral… and to the University of Hawaii which is developing a different configuration of coral and other materials. And DARPA’s not the only government agency taking action. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is using nursery-grown coral to restore seven iconic reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
There are many potential obstacles to restoring coral reefs – as Diego Lirman and his team learned after Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017.
Diego Lirman: It was a major setback. We– we lost 90% of all of the corals that we had been growing for a decade.
Anderson Cooper: Wow.
Diego Lirman: It was a huge loss. But we also rebuilt very quickly.
There’s not much anyone can do about a major hurricane. But perhaps the biggest criticism of restoring reefs or creating hybrid ones is that it’s not possible to do this on the scale that’s needed.
Anderson Cooper: There are some people who think this is like spitting into the ocean, that this is not gonna be enough to counteract climate change.
Andrew Baker: We get that all the time. But if we don’t address this challenge in terms of maintaining coral resilience in the meantime while we deal with some of these larger societal problems, we won’t have any coral reefs left by the time we get this other problem under control.
Anderson Cooper: Without a meaningful reduction of carbon gasses to address climate change, will you be able to rescue the reefs?
Diego Lirman: Absolutely not. the mantra is, “We are buying time.”
Anderson Cooper: The intergovernmental panel on climate change predicts that with a– two degrees Celsius– increase in warming, 99% of the world’s coral reefs could be irreversibly lost in the next 30 years. I mean, that’s a pretty dire assessment.
Andrew Baker: That’s right. So, coral reefs are on their way to becoming probably the first global ecosystem — that we’ll lose as a result of climate change. So, you know, we– we have no time to lose.
Produced by Andy Court. Associate producers, Evie Salomon and Annabelle Hanflig. Edited by Sean Kelly.
Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” has contributed to 60 Minutes since 2006. His exceptional reporting on big news events has earned Cooper a reputation as one of television’s pre-eminent newsmen.
