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The Reef That Built Itself Back: Coral Recovery After Bleaching
In 2023, a marine heat wave settled over Palmyra Atoll, a remote ring of coral islands about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, and stayed for more than half a year. Some of the reef's most vibrant corals turned white. Joe Pollock of The Nature Conservancy, who monitors the reef, admitted he didn't know if it would come back. Three years later, he put his face in the water and found the reef floor covered in baby corals.
In this episode, I break down why Palmyra recovered when so many reefs struggle. It comes down to an intact food web: parrotfish that graze algae off the reef, a bubblegum-pink…
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