Reef Madness

Big Red: This soft coral has branches of up to an inch long [shown here]. The animal, six inches tall and four inches wide, now lives in an aquarium at the Queensland Museum.  Gary Cranitch

During the trip, which helped mark 2008 as the International Year of the Reef, researchers explored the reefs around Lizard Island at a range of depths to find species from a variety of habitats. During the next several years, these three-week expeditions to other regions of the Great Barrier Reef will continue to provide a baseline species inventory of the region. The inventory should help scientists understand how changing ocean conditions adversely affect reef biodiversity and, by extension, 30 million of the world’s poorest people who rely entirely on reefs for food.