What has happened and why are topics of great debate, but the indisputable fact is that unless counter-measures are taken immediately, some and perhaps all of the coral reefs of the planet could disappear or be altered in ways that will effect entire marine ecosystems.

What will happen is again a topic of great academic discussion but you can be sure that it does not take a government grant and endless studies to be assured that it will not be pretty. The great news is that there are teams of really smart and dedicated researchers using their talents and funding to create solutions for reestablishment and preservation.

First, to know how and why a coral nursery works, it is very helpful to understand a little about coral and how they work. Simply stated, coral is made up of colonies of tiny little animals called coral polyps that create limestone out of seawater to build distinctive shapes that give them an identity, like Elkhorn coral or Brain coral or Black coral. They have existed for millions of years using both sexual and asexual methods of propagation but they are extremely slow-growing and very susceptible to a huge onslaught of perils due in part to the small size of each individual polyp in the colony.