Study: Global Coral Crisis Is In Full Bloom

Coral reefs around the world are in bad shape these days. But a new research paper in the journal Science says their problems may be getting worse. The paper says as much as a third of the world's coral species may now be headed toward extinction, thanks to problems ranging from destructive fishing boats to ocean waters warmed by global climate change.

Coral experts say these reefs hold 25 percent of the world's marine species. That list includes sponges, lobsters, turtles, shrimp, sharks and commercially important fish. Philip Munday, a reef expert at Australia's James Cook University, says that's why coral reefs are often called "the rain forests of the ocean."

"It's quite stunning when you get into the water on a lovely clear day and you drop down onto [healthy] reef," says Munday. "There are fish everywhere, hundreds of thousands of fish, the sort of things you almost don't see anywhere else."

Unfortunately, reefs like those are few and far between these days. And Kent Carpenter, a reef expert at Virginia's Old Dominion University, says the problems faced by these important ecosystems may be worse than a lot of experts think they are. In a new paper, he reports that a third of the world's coral species are now declining toward extinction, partly owing to increased outbreaks of coral diseases. Corals that aren't killed off by these new diseases are recovering more slowly, he reports. Some are slowly overwhelmed by ugly gobs of algae