Cloral Bleaching
By:RILEY MACKEY AND SARAH OVER
Why are Coral Important?
Coral reefs protect shallow water sea plants, and animal life.
It provides nurseries for thousands of fish that live in the ocean.
Coral helps break down waves during storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and even tsunamis.
Coral is also used to help treat diseases like cancer and HIV.
All kinds of things like seaweed, plankton, and algae grows on coral to provide food for thousands of fish that live there.
They can also grow on the shells of sunken boats to help contain different sea biomes.
What is Coral Bleaching?
When a coral bleaches it is not dead. Coral can survive bleaching but is put under stress, and are subject to mortality. Warmer waters also cause the coral to expel the algae in their living tissues, causing the coral to turn completely white. In 1998 a huge underwater heatwave killed 16% of the coral reefs around the world.