Video: Parrotfish Critical for Healthy Coral Reefs

Marine ecologist Katie Cramer and marine geologist Richard Norris of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego describe how they uncovered the role parrotfish play in keeping coral reefs healthy in this new video. The two recently published a study that used 3,000 years of fossil records to observe the historical relationship between parrotfish grazing and coral growth. "We found that the more parrotfish there are on the reef, the faster the reef grows."  Norris and Cramer said that they are sharing the information with local coral reef managers in Caribbean countries so they can improve their efforts to protect parrotfish from overfishing.

– Robert Monroe

Related Video: Parrotfish Critical for Healthy Coral Reefs