Back in the mid-80's, Israel Academy of Sciences coral reproduction expert Yossi Loya had a PhD student who made a groundbreaking discovery: Red Sea corals reproduce in symphony. By releasing sperm and eggs on the same night or series of nights each spawning season, species ensure their continued survival . 

Thirty years later, that PhD student's son – also conducting research on the same Red Sea corals under Yossi Loya's tutelage – revealed a new breakthrough: Some corals have fallen out of reproductive sync releasing gametes (sperm and egg) at inconsistent times, endangering coral survival. 

Coral reefs are vast underwater colonies serving as hiding places and food and shelter sources for vertebrates and invertebrates. There are more than 100 coral species in the Red Sea and as Loya puts it: 

"The network is like a chain. Break that chain and you're disrupting the entire chain of life, extending to humans."

In the human context, coral reef loss affects the fishing industry and could lead to the demise of island states where coral reefs are a first line of defense against rising tides.  

Loya and PhD student Tom Shlesinger can't point to one distinct factor disrupting coral life-cycle rhythms.

"It's probably a combination of things: warming sea temperatures, chemicals or pharmaceuticals in the water. Maybe even stresses we don't know yet," said Loya.

The findings are so important that Shlesinger and Loya's research – thousands of hours underwater observing coral behavior, lab experiments and tissue studies – was published in September's Science Magazine.  

Soon after the study's release, colleagues in different countries reached out to Loya: 'We think we're seeing the same phenomenon,' they told him. 

Loya and Shlesinger's Red Sea colleagues know the corals are in trouble and have been taking action for years to fix a potential crisis. 

Across the bay from Eilat in Aqaba Jordan, coral eco-physiology pioneer professor Fuad Al-Horani is cultivating baby corals in lab nurseries, regenerating dead reefs with glued-on live coral tissue and working on cryogenics – freezing cells and tissue in "coral banks" for the future. 

"Within a 27 km coastline radius there's a tremendous amount of competition: reefs, divers, tourism, industrial plants; it makes the work of saving reefs more challenging." 

Jordan and Israel cooperated in past years on eco-projects but current political tensions have impacted the working relationship. 

"It's going to have to get a lot worse before it gets better," Red Sea Underwater Observatory Curator Aviv Levy tells CGTN. "We share the same sea with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. In the long run, uniform policy has to be implemented." 

Levy runs a coral cultivation program for Israeli elementary and teenage students so that they can learn about corals, raise babies and eventually plant them in the sea. 

"Our emphasis is on the future. Today's young people are going to have to clean up the mess we made," said Levy.

(Edited by An Qi)

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