TELA BAY, Honduras — Viewed from the boat, the mighty elkhorn corals shimmer through the clear water, their tips grazing the surface and seeming to reach for the hull. But it’s only when one is submerged that the corals display their full size and strength, and all the busy biodiversity swarming around them. Some of […]
  • The latest “report card” on Mesoamerica’s coral reefs made clear that 2024’s hottest-ever recorded summer temperatures devastated some of the region’s most iconic reef sites.
  • But against all odds, a reef in Tela Bay on Honduras’s Caribbean coast, composed largely of critically endangered elkhorn corals (Acorpora palmata), displays remarkable health.
  • Known affectionately as “Cocalito,” this patch of coral is raising urgent questions about what qualities endow coral with heat resilience and whether they can be harnessed to help save other reefs.

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