Most know that coral reefs are threatened by ocean warming, but fewer may realize that water quality is just as important in determining the health of our reefs. We at the Allen Coral Atlas continue to work on improving ocean turbidity monitoring, to support you, our users in your efforts to monitor, assess, and mitigate sources of turbidity over time. Today we announce our new annual ocean turbidity product, carefully derived from satellite imagery, and developed and presented for your long-term, annual monitoring of water quality trends over reefs of your interest and concern ..read more

The global area of coral reefs is 423,589 square kilometers as determined by the Allen Coral Atlas, or 163,549 square miles - similar to the size of Papua New Guinea's land mass. Read on for more information about global coral reefs ..read more

The Atlas team is excited to launch a brand new feature, bleaching alerts. These email alerts will allow reef managers, decision makers, scientists, dive operators, environmental journalists and the general public to discover where corals are bleaching in near real-time. They can be assigned to a user’s priority areas to mobilize monitoring groups and prompt communication with stakeholders. Ultimately, these alerts are in place to help respond to a bleaching event. Image Credit: The Ocean Agency ..read more

A toxic cocktail of land- and sea-based pollution, combined with increasing resource extraction, is taking out some blue ecosystems far faster than climate change. And the one-two punch of global and local stress is driving coastal losses at an accelerating rate. While each monitoring product we create offers new insight into how conditions are changing on coral reefs, we want to find out where those one-two punches are occurring. We believe such cases offer reef conservationists and managers an opportunity for more tactical interventions. And to further empower Atlas users, today we’re launch ..read more

Over the past few months, we featured interviews with the four winners of International Coral Reef Society’s Coral Reef Conservation Award Dr. Rod Salm, Dr. Nyawira Muthiga, Dr. Alan White and Ms. Sue Wells. We conclude our series with their thoughts on their hope for the future of these precious ecosystems ..read more

It is no secret that the Allen Coral Atlas has a love for the rightfully named “rainforests of the sea.” Coral reefs provide humanity with many core benefits ranging from providing food security with reef fish to stimulating the economy with tourism and much more ..read more

For International Women's Day, we chose to interview six of the women working for the Allen Coral Atlas. Their stories re-enforce the truth - women are changing the world. Keep reading to hear from amazing leaders in coral reef conservation ..read more

From offering food security and protecting coastlines to supporting 25 percent of the ocean’s marine biodiversity, coral reefs play a vital role for this planet. And for these marine ecosystems, information is opening new doors for targeted action. On September 8, 2021, the Allen Coral Atlas met a major milestone by completing global habitat maps of the world’s tropical, shallow coral reefs ..read more

There is a Tahitian myth of a young king, Rata. He became king after his father and uncle ventured beyond the reef and were swallowed by a giant clam on their way to Pitcairn. Rata grew up with an appetite for revenge. One day, he captured forest elves and they built him a canoe from a tree that he admired. The elves were magic, of course, and ..read more

In 2017, the Allen Coral Atlas founding organizations set out to create global habitat maps and connect a community of coral conservationists, researchers, and educators around the world. This became the Allen Coral Atlas. Last month, the Atlas completed mapping the world’s coral reefs. How did the team do it? This global map had several key ingredients including advanced analytics, high-resolution satellite imagery, and the glue that brings it together – teamwork ..read more