Why I still have hope for coral reefs | Kristen Marhaver

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2017

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Corals in the Pacific Ocean have been dying at an alarming rate, particularly from bleaching brought on by increased water temperatures. But it's not too late to act, says TED Fellow Kristen Marhaver. She points to the Caribbean -- given time, stable temperatures and strong protection, corals there have shown the ability to survive and recover from trauma. Marhaver reminds us why we need to keep working to protect the precious corals we have left. "Corals have always been playing the long game," she says, "and now so are we."

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features coral reef biologist Kristen Marhaver, recorded live at TED 2017.
0:08.0	The first time I cried underwater was in 2008, the island of Kurosau, way down in the southern Caribbean.
0:17.0	It's beautiful there. I was studying these corals for my PhD,
0:21.6	and after days and days of diving on the same reef,
0:24.6	I had gotten to know them as individuals.
0:26.6	I had made friends with coral colonies,
0:28.6	totally a normal thing to do.
0:30.6	Then, Hurricane Omar smashed them apart
0:34.6	and ripped off their skin,
0:36.6	leaving little bits of wounded tissue
0:38.6	that would have a hard time healing and big patches of dead skeleton that would get overgrown by algae.
0:45.3	When I saw this damage for the first time, stretching all the way down the reef, I sunk onto the
0:49.8	sand in my scuba gear and I cried. If a coral could die that fast,
0:54.9	how could a reef ever survive,
0:57.1	and why was I making it my job to try to fight for them?
1:00.5	I never heard another scientist tell that kind of story
1:03.2	until last year.
1:05.7	A scientist in Guam wrote,
1:07.4	I cried right into my mask,
1:09.3	seeing the damage on the reefs. Then a scientist in Australia wrote, I cried right into my mask, seeing the damage on the reefs.
1:12.3	Then a scientist in Australia wrote,
1:14.5	I showed my students the results of our coral surveys, and we wept.
	...

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