Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

How To Grow Coral

Watch more with these video collections:

When visitors at Georgia Aquarium gaze upon the diverse array of colorful corals, [biologist Kim] Stone says many mistake the often stationary specimens for beautiful rocks. But corals are actually living animals—they belong to Cnidaria, the same group as jellyfish. Tucked within their tissues are photosynthetic algae cells, called zooxanthellae. The two have an important symbiotic relationship, explains Stone, with the coral providing a home for the zooxanthellae, and the cells repaying by providing essential nutrients and giving color to the coral…

But unfortunately, there are many threats that strain this relationship. Ocean acidity, sea level rise, and particularly increased water temperatures not only affect the health of the coral, but affect the health of the zooxanthellae, Stone says. As the zooxanthellae gets stressed, it leaves the tissue and the coral begins to pale—what we know as coral bleaching.

Science Friday visits with Kim Stone, curator of fish and invertebrates at Georgia Aquarium, to learn how her team is growing coral in partnership with the Coral Restoration Foundation.

Learn more about the Coral Restoration Foundation: Rebuilding the world’s coral reefs with coral farming.

Then see what scientists and conservationists are doing on the other side of the globe: Coral Spawning at Australia’s National Sea Simulator. Plus: How dead is the Great Barrier Reef?

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Wild Oceans: Coral Reef In Technicolor

Rion Nakaya

What to Expect From an Expecting Seahorse

Rion Nakaya

Underwater time lapse can show the secret life of a coral reef

Rion Nakaya

Underwater fluorescence with Philippe Cousteau and BBC Oceans

Rion Nakaya

Turning Oil Rigs Into Reefs

Rion Nakaya

The Very Hungry Maggot: How larva farming can help reduce food waste

Rion Nakaya

The seafloor microscope that can reveal corals’ secrets

Rion Nakaya

The Embroidered Art of Meredith Woolnough

Rion Nakaya

The dazzling fluorescent colors of corals under actinic lights

Rion Nakaya