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Help for coral reefs - 14th May 2021

This is a coral reef. Coral reefs are dying all over the world.

Scientists want to save the coral reefs. They made this strange object. It will help the corals in Panama. New corals can grow on the object.

Students watch the corals grow. They get information for scientists. They learn about corals.

These special tiles help coral reefs too. Scientists in Hong Kong make them with 3D printers. The scientists put the tiles on the bottom of the sea. New corals can grow on the tiles.

Vriko Yu says fish like the tiles.

Vriko Yu: "I still remember the first time we put down the tiles. There were a few fishes around the tiles and it was making me really excited. But this time, or even last time that we revisited the tiles, we can see there are a lot more groups of fishes, and different kinds of fishes.’’

Professor David Baker feels positive about the future of corals.

David Baker: "In my imagination, we think about climate change is happening, it's going to warm our waters considerably, but as we start to clean up the waters as well through various government initiatives, we might actually be creating a new potential home for corals as they try to escape climate change from equatorial regions."

Louis Hadjioannou is a scientist in Cyprus. He is worried about the sea temperature.

Louis Hadjioannou: "In the year 2015 when we had an anomaly of I think it was one temperature higher [degree Celsius] than the maximum normal one, we got more than 20 to 30 percent of corals dying.”

Louis wants school children to learn about coral. Then, they will help coral in the future.

Louis Hadjioannou: "Our aim is to primarily educate children, they are the future. They are the ones who are going to become the future conservationists, the future government, the future users of this island and the coastal area.”