Philippe Cousteau on Why Coral Reefs Are Disappearing and How to Rebuild Them

Back From the Brink, from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom · Sep 17, 2026 · 26m · transcript

Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the ocean floor but support 25% of all marine life, and since the 1950s, we've lost half of them.

In this episode, Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant sits down with Philippe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau and founder of EarthEcho International, to unpack why reef collapse has stayed the "most underreported environmental crisis on the planet." Philippe explains the science of coral bleaching, the technology that can grow coral 20 times faster than nature. That's why he now treats reefs not as ecosystems to protect but as infrastructure to rebuild, at a scale…