Stanford Just Figured Out How to Lead Dying Coral Reefs to a 'Fast and Full Recovery'

Researchers at Stanford say they’ve found a way to speed up recovery for bleached coral: contact with a healthy neighbor can revive bleached colonies in as little as eight weeks. The finding, detailed in a new Science Advances study, targets a major reef crisis. During the last major marine heat wave from January 2023 to September 2025, 84.4% of the world’s coral reefs experienced bleaching-level heat stress, and more than half have already been lost versus 1950s coverage. Bleaching occurs when heat kills coral’s algal symbionts. In lab tests using 10 Pocillopora damicornis pairs, those touching healthy fragments regained prospects faster than controls separated by only millimeters.