Holy Seaweed! Batfish Save Reef

A fish that gatecrashed an experiment in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has surprised scientists by emerging as an unexpected weapon against the worldwide decline of coral reefs. Scientists from the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) had been studying ways of reversing the effects of coral bleaching at a reef near Orpheus Island in the World Heritage listed marine park. Part of the research involved generating a bloom of the tropical kelp sargassum weed to mimic the effects of choking invasive weeds and seeing if local weed-eating fish would chomp their way through it, said CoECRS director Professor Terry Hughes...