{"id":218380,"date":"2025-07-21T02:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T07:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/the-beauty-of-coral-reefs-is-key-to-their-survival-so-we-came-up-with-a-way-to-measure-it"},"modified":"2025-07-21T02:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T07:06:10","slug":"the-beauty-of-coral-reefs-is-key-to-their-survival-so-we-came-up-with-a-way-to-measure-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/the-beauty-of-coral-reefs-is-key-to-their-survival-so-we-came-up-with-a-way-to-measure-it","title":{"rendered":"The beauty of coral reefs is key to their survival\u2014so we came up with a way to measure it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/the-beauty-of-coral-reefs-is-key-to-their-survival-so-we-came-up-with-a-way-to-measure-it3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why do people care about coral reefs? Why does their damage cause such <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/unesco-expresses-utmost-concern-at-the-state-of-the-great-barrier-reef-257638\" target=\"_blank\">concern and outrage<\/a>? What drives people to go to <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/traditional-owners-and-scientists-worked-together-on-coral-ivf-projects-heres-what-we-found-241915\" target=\"_blank\">great lengths<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/weve-bred-corals-to-better-tolerate-lethal-heatwaves-but-rapid-climate-action-is-still-needed-to-save-reefs-241298\" target=\"_blank\">protect and restore<\/a> them?<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it\u2019s partly because of their <a href=\"https:\/\/reef-world.org\/importance-of-coral-reefs\" target=\"_blank\">ecological importance and economic value <\/a>\u2014but it\u2019s also because they are beautiful. Healthy coral reefs are among the most visually spectacular ecosystems on the planet\u2014and this beauty is far from superficial. It underpins cultural heritage value, supports <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/tourism+industries\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">tourism industries<\/a>, encourages ocean stewardship and deepens people\u2019s emotional connections to the sea.<\/p>\n<p>But how can such beauty be measured? And when it is destroyed, can it be rebuilt?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do people care about coral reefs? Why does their damage cause such concern and outrage? What drives people to go to great lengths to protect and restore them? Of course, it\u2019s partly because of their ecological importance and economic value \u2014but it\u2019s also because they are beautiful. Healthy coral reefs are among the most [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}