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Once Dying And Bleached, A Pacific Coral Reef Is Blooming Again

11:08

Peter O'Dowd

August 18, 2016

A coral reef off Enderbury Island, a small atoll off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)

A coral reef in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean is coming back to life.

Researchers who've been making a trek for years to the Pacific nation of Kiribati say a reef there is teeming with fish and color again. The Coral Castles reef had been bleached by warmer, more acidic ocean water. It's part of a trend that's choking brilliant coral reefs all over the globe.

Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd visited the researchers at the New England Aquarium to find out why the reef recovered.

Coral on a reef off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)

Fish swim near a reef off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)

Fish swim above a coral reef off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)

Guests

Randi Rotjan, associate research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. She tweets @RandiRotjan.

Jan Witting, oceanographer with SEA Semester in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

This segment aired on August 18, 2016.