Corals flourish at Bikini Atoll

Huge colonies of Porites coral growing up to 26 feet (8 meters) high flourish in the Bravo Crater in the Marshall Islands’ Bikini Atoll.

A recent international survey of the 1.2-mile-wide (2-kilometer-wide) crater, created in 1954 by the impact of the most powerful atom bomb ever detonated by the U.S., shows that some coral species have bounced back.

“It was awesome to see coral cover as high as 80 percent and large treelike branching formations with trunks 30 centimeters (11 inches) thick,” Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies said in a statement.

However, 42 species of corals never recovered from the devastating event, which vaporized nearby islands and raised water temperatures to 55,000 degrees Celsius (99,000 degrees Fahrenheit).

From National Geographic Read more

Turtle survives after dentist filling

A rare turtle that survived being bashed against rocks when he washed up on a Cornish beach has had his shell patched up using dental paste.

The half-metre-long loggerhead turtle was underweight, malnourished and dehydrated when he was found stranded at Widemouth Bay near Bude eight weeks ago by a woman walking her dog. Since then the turtle has been nursed back to health by staff at the Blue Reef Aquarium, Newquay, where he was nicknamed James Bond after being allocated the number 007 by the marine strandings network.

The staff were unsure of what to do about black lesions on the turtle’s shell, damage that was caused when he was tossed against the rocks. A local pharmacist and a dental surgery came to James Bond’s assistance by donating a protective paste called Orabase to provide an extra layer of protection while the injuries heal. Bond is now doing so well that he is on display at the aquarium and staff hope to release him back into the wild, possibly in the Canary Islands, in the next few months.

Form the Times Online

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