Why Red Sea corals may survive warming seas: what the research found

The researchers based their conclusion on experiments showing an exceptionally high bleaching threshold in northern Red Sea corals, and on an ocean model of how coral larvae may disperse through a selective thermal barrier at the southern end of the Red Sea.

The authors attribute it to natural selection: corals that reached the northern Red Sea had to pass through the much warmer south, favouring heat-tolerant types.

No. The study describes a potential refuge from warming — not protection from everything else that harms reefs, such as physical damage from anchors, fins and hands, and pollution. The paper focuses on the Gulf of Aqaba; it is one study, and reefs everywhere still depend on how we treat them.

Don't touch the reef, master your buoyancy, keep fins off the coral and choose operators that use moorings. Our no-contact policy, clean-up dives and HEPCA partnership are part of how we look after the reefs we dive.