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Two nurse sharks hover over a baited cage
Lesson Plan

Corrosion to Corals

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A coral head in the Mesoamerican Reef has both bleached and living coral. The white sections are bleached and the brown parts still contain zooxanthellae, the symbiotic algae that provide food to their coral hosts.
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Bleached Coral On Mesoamerican Reef

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What is coral? The answer is coral is an animal. This cutaway diagram of a coral polyp shows the location of its photosynthetic algae, or zooxanthellae, which coral needs to survive.
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What Is Coral? A Coral Polyp and Zooxanthellae

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Half a century after nuclear testing blasted the reefs of Bikini Atoll, corals have recovered.
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Bikini Atoll Coral

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On coral reefs fish are important links in the food chain that sustains higher-order predators (including humans) and keeps everything in balance.
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Black Axil Chromis on a Coral Reef

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Raccoon butterfly fish and angelfish on a reef in the Red Sea, near Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.
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Coral Reef Scene

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Scientist Martha Nizinski holds a squat lobster (Eumunida picta) collected at the Lophelia reefs off Cape Lookout, North Carolina.    
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Squat Lobster from Reefs of North Carolina

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A coral catshark
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Coral Catshark

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Two coral trout swim on a reef in Fiji.
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Coral Trout in a Fiji Reef

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On a healthy coral reef, fish (as well as many other organisms) thrive. Not only are reefs beautiful, but they are also critical to ocean health and human livelihoods.
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Healthy Coral Head

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Close-up photograph of translucent coral polyps, showing the symbiotic algae living inside.
Slideshow

Zooxanthellae and Coral Bleaching

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The People's Reef--Part of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef
Slideshow

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef

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