Holding out for some local heroes

摘要

Coral reefs are enticingly beautiful, and terrifyingly fragile. In the Pacific, the El Nino of 1982-83 wiped out over 90 per cent of the corals of the Galapagos Islands. Yet the vagaries of nature can pale against the influence of people on coral reefs, who can either protect them or destroy hundreds of years of growth in minutes.