Acropora palmata

A threatened Caribbean coral recorded by NOAA

“I have been here for five thousand years. My branches spread wide enough to shelter whole neighbourhoods of fish. My thickets broke waves before they reached the shore. An entire reef zone was named after me, that is how much of the Caribbean I once filled. Now that zone still carries my name. But I am almost gone from it. Disease came first. Then the water grew too warm, and I let go of the algae living inside me, the ones that kept me fed, kept me golden. Without them, I starve. I bleach. A single heatwave moved through the Florida Keys and left almost nothing behind. I still try to spawn each summer, once, after the full moon. The eggs rise. I wait. But there are so few of us left to find each other. And without us, listen to what this reef has become.”