(CNN) — The turquoise water of Hōnaunau Bay in Hawaii, an area popular with snorkelers and divers, is teeming with spiny creatures that threaten to push the coral reef “past ...

In a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters, the MIT team described reef passes as “deep, navigable channels dissecting coral reefs around volcanic islands.” ...

Viewed from above, the coral reefs that circle some islands bear what look to be notches, like cracks that run straight through a ring. These breaks in the coral are reef passes - large channels that ...

The turquoise water of Hōnaunau Bay in Hawaii, an area popular with snorkelers and divers, is teeming with spiny creatures that could erode the reef past the point of no return, new research has ...

Coral reefs are sometimes dubbed the “rainforests of the sea” because they support so much ocean life. They also play a vital role protecting coastlines from storm surges and erosion.

Coral reefs are sometimes dubbed the “rainforests of the sea” because they support so much ocean life. They also play a vital role protecting coastlines from storm surges and erosion.

Reef growth is typically measured by the amount of calcium carbonate — the substance which forms coral skeletons — it produces per square meter each year. The reef in Hōnaunau Bay is growing 30 times ...

The reef in Hōnaunau Bay is growing 30 times more slowly than it did four decades ago, according to the study. Production levels were around 15 kilograms (33 pounds) per square meter in parts of ...

The Greek government at the end of May, banned bottom trawling in the waters around the archipelago, to protect a recent discovery of exceptionally rich coral reefs. Photo: Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP ...

Volcanic islands, such as the islands of Hawaii and the Caribbean, are surrounded by coral reefs that encircle an island in a labyrinthine, living ring. A coral reef is punctured at points by reef ...

New research indicates reef passes — channels that cut through coral reefs and serve as conduits for ocean water and nutrients — are shaped by island rivers.