These reefs thrive despite climate change.
In this 4-minute video, CNN's Oren Liebermann dives below the surface to understand how corals in the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea are resistant to climate change. He interviews scientists at EMBRC's partner, The Inter-University Institute (IUI) for Marine Sciences in Eilat (Israel), including Amatzia Genin (marine ecologist) and Maoz Fine (researcher).
Reefs are dying everywhere in the world except in the Red Sea. Yet, coral in the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat has never been exposed to bleaching, although the water is heating up. So what's the secret? Researchers say that thousands of years ago the ancestors of the corals here had to come through the southern Red Sea - where the waters are far warmer. Those that survived are accustomed to warm, salty water.
Researchers says climate change won’t affect the corals here for another 100 years. Researchers at IUI are trying to understand how the reefs will change, if at all. They say this may very well be the last reef refuge - albeit a relatively small one (4km of the 2,000km reef along the Red Sea).
