Corals Are Super. Please Protect Them

Singapore waters are home to a surprising amount of marine life.

Whenever coral scientist Kyle Morgan dives in Singapore's waters, it is a surreal experience for him. Ships bigger than a building pass all too often, sending underwater vibrations he can feel in his chest. In the distance, a petrochemical plant looms.

Morgan has dived in many of the most remote and pristine areas on the planet, and is still awed to find coral reefs thriving in one of the world's busiest ports, next to a major megacity. Amid close encounters with sea snakes, turtles and the occasional glimpse of pink dolphins, he has discovered a breed of hardy, resilient “super corals” that has been able to survive in hostile and extreme conditions.

A principal investigator at the Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) and an assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Asian School of the Environment, Morgan and a team of scientists have been tracking the growth and measuring the environmental conditions of corals in Singapore for the last 14 months in hopes of saving the threatened marine ecosystem.

Their efforts were highlighted in the documentary Changing Ocean Asia, written and directed by Australian filmmaker Liz Courtney, who is the artistin-residence at EOS.

There are 100,000 sq km of coral reefs in South-east Asia with more than 70 percent of the world's coral species, and one-third of the world's corals. Despite its global importance as a coral biodiversity hotspot, Morgan notes that the region lacks long-term standardised data sets and infrastructure to support this research.