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Once Dying And Bleached, A Pacific Coral Reef Is Blooming Again
Resume![A coral reef off Enderbury Island, a small atoll off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)](https://wordpress.wbur.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/0818_coral-02.jpg)
A coral reef in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean is coming back to life.
Researchers who've been making a trek for years to the Pacific nation of Kiribati say a reef there is teeming with fish and color again. The Coral Castles reef had been bleached by warmer, more acidic ocean water. It's part of a trend that's choking brilliant coral reefs all over the globe.
Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd visited the researchers at the New England Aquarium to find out why the reef recovered.
![Coral on a reef off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)](https://media.wbur.org/wp/2016/08/0818_coral-03.jpg)
![Fish swim near a reef off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)](https://media.wbur.org/wp/2016/08/0818_coral-04.jpg)
![Coral on a reef off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)](https://media.wbur.org/wp/2016/08/0818_coral-05.jpg)
![Fish swim above a coral reef off Kanton Island in the Pacific Ocean. (Courtesy of Randi Rotjan)](https://media.wbur.org/wp/2016/08/0818_coral-06.jpg)
Guests
Randi Rotjan, associate research scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. She tweets @RandiRotjan.
Jan Witting, oceanographer with SEA Semester in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
This segment aired on August 18, 2016.