Colors of Coral, Bali
Coral reefs are amazing things. They grow in warm, clear waters around the globe. They have the ability to live in nutrient poor tropics because of a mutualistic relationship with algae called zooxanthellae that lives inside the stony coral skeleton. The zooxanthellae uses the ample sunlight in the shallow water to photosynthesize creating food for it and its host coral. The algae also provides color to the otherwise white coral. All young coral need to find something sturdy to attach too in order to start growing into a reef. They could grow on top of another reef, rocks, or in this case a shipwreck! We dove the US Transport ship Liberty here in Bali, Indonesia and I was shocked to witness the amount of color that is underwater. So many different types of coral, both hard and soft, have attached to the ship wreck and have grown quickly. The wreck has been completely submerged for about 50 years which is a relatively short time for coral to form such dense coverage. Indonesia's l...