Great Barrier Reef ‘not so great’:

“So the question is: why has coral cover continued to decline when the Great Barrier Reaf is being managed with a management regime often recognised as ‘the best managed coral reef system in the world’, based on a strong science-for-management ethic?”

In a nut shell, the stressors which are known to be most responsible for the loss of coral cover and general ‘reef health’ were terrestrial pollution including the link to outbreaks of crown of thorns starfish, fishing impacts and climate change.

And effective action on climate change has yet to begin either nationally or globally.
http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20121204-23307.html

BP Oil Spill Devastated Seafloor Coral:

Since sea bed coral lies some 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) below the surface, it is not usually harmed by spills from oil tankers, according to lead study author Helen White, an assistant professor of chemistry at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.

“We would not expect deep-water corals to be impacted by a typical oil spill, but the sheer magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its release at depth make it very different from a tanker running aground and spilling its contents,” she said.

“Because of the unprecedented nature of the spill, we have learned that its impacts are more far reaching than those arising from smaller spills that occur on the surface.”

Coral Reefs May Be Adapting To Global Warming:

As global warming heats up the Earth’s oceans, one ecosystem stands to be severely threatened: Coral reefs. However, new research has given scientists hope about the fate of these coral reefs.

An international team of researchers has studied a coral population in South-East Asian waters that had survived a bleaching event. What was significant about this reef was that it had also survived another bleaching event 12 years earlier in 1998. But some reefs will not be able to adapt to the changing climates as well as others.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1112491613/coral-reefs-may-be-adapting-to-global-warming/

Corals inflate to escape being buried alive in sand:

Fascinating new video footage, shot over 20 hours, of a mushroom coral inflating itself to escape a sandy burial has brought the organism to life.

Team Gallagher Rowing Team to Build World’s Biggest Coral Reef

Coral Reefs cover 1% of the ocean yet provide a home for 25% of all marine species. Unfortunately, half of the coral reefs globally have vanished or are in a state of serious decline.

http://http://row2k.com/news/news.cfm?ID=67467

Team Gallagher are generating funds to build an artificial reef off the northern coast of Borneo, just east of Semporna. The reef, while providing a home and hunting ground for a vast diversity of marine species, will also function as an educational tool

Corals commit suicide…Australian scientists claim to have unravelled the mystery behind the mass death of corals worldwide as the Earth’s climate warms, upon sea water warming, corals send a signal to their infected cells to commit “suicide”, allowing the safe cells to recover quickly.

Dr.Tracy Ainsworth and a team from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies says that coral bleaching, one of the most devastating events affecting coral reefs around the planet, is triggered by rising water temperatures.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-11-21/news/30424950_1_corals-symbiotic-algae-acropora

Dr. Ainsworth discusses her reasearch on corals below.

Coral Reefs likely to disappear by the end of the century, according to a top UN Scientist. In the recently published book Our Dying Planet, Professor Peter Sale writes that coral reef ecosystems are very likely to disappear by the end of this century, in what would be “a new first for mankind — the ‘extinction’ of an entire ecosystem.” He reports that the decline in coral reefs is mainly due to climate change and ocean acidification. This scientist may or may not be correct. But the tragedy is that we’ve come to the point where someone can actually say that they believe the statement can be supported scientifically. The time for action is now. http://thenelsondaily.com/news/coral-reefs-likely-disappear-end-century-13907

Another Coral Reef Fish Uses Tool To Help It Eat:
A couple months ago it was revealed that the blackspot tuskfish exhibits basic tool use to help it eat—picking up a clam and using a rock to help open it. Now we have video of another species of wrasse, the orange-dotted tuskfish doing something similar. What the movie shows is very interesting. The animal excavates sand to get the shell out, then swims for a long time to find an appropriate area where it can crack the shell. It requires a lot of forward thinking, because there are a number of steps involved. For a fish, it’s a pretty big deal. (Science Daily)