From threat to threatened: A brief history of coral reef research

Alexander Dallas Bache was the second Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey. He was dedicated to charting our coastlines and improving the safety and effectiveness of marine navigation. In 1851, seeing coral reefs as a threat to the safety of ships traveling our coasts, he commissioned controversial American naturalist, Louis Agassiz, to study coral reefs in Florida for the U.S. Coast Survey to determine what could be done about this problem.

Charles Darwin was also doing research on coral reefs. He believed reefs were formed as volcanic islands subsided into the ocean and created the right conditions for them to grow. He theorized three stages of the coral reef: the fringing reef, the barrier reef, and the atoll offsite link.

Alexander Agassiz, son of Louis Agassiz, also worked for the U.S. Coast Survey. He followed Scottish marine scientist John Murray’s belief that elevated sedimentary platforms built up until they reached a point where enough sunlight went through the water for corals to live on them offsite link. Alexander Agassiz wanted to disprove Darwin’s theory to avenge his father’s humiliation at Darwin’s hands, when they quarreled over creationism versus evolution. Louis Agassiz also supported the theory of polygenism, which has since been disproven.

Between 1896 and 1900, Alexander Agassiz collected many samples that he believed proved his theory on coral reef formation.

In the 1950s, high-powered drills were used to collect samples proving that Darwin’s theory about fringing, barrier, and atoll reefs was correct. There are also other types of reefs that form in different ways.

These drills and other scientific and technological advances, like the Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA), submersible vehicles, and satellites allowed researchers even better access to study coral reefs.

As researchers learned more about coral reefs, they realized that their benefits to the ecosystem far outweigh any threat they may pose to ships navigating near them. Coral reefs protect coastlines from storms and erosion and are a source for food and new medicines.

It also became clear that coral reefs needed to be protected from both natural and manmade threats, such as disease, invasive species, coral mining, overfishing, marine pollution, ocean acidification, and coral bleaching.

Today, we are able to examine, record, and analyze more of the ocean's mysteries than ever before. NOAA has more than 30 offices, like NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program and Coral Reef Watch, working to understand and protect coral reefs. NOAA has also developed hundreds of partnerships in support of this work at local, regional, and international scales with groups like the United States Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) and the International Coral Reef Initiative offsite link (ICRI), which work to protect and restore coral reefs in the U.S. and globally.

Because of new technologies, like undersea dwellings that allow scientists to remain underwater and study corals for longer periods of time, coral nurseries that allow researchers to rehabilitate and repopulate damaged coral reefs, and satellites that can spot heat stress that leads to coral bleaching, we are better able to understand and manage these valuable ecosystems today, with the goal of resilient, thriving coral reefs in the future.