Why Coral Bleaching Is Important To You (Live)

Written for the presentation of our Targeted Research Project (TRP) on the physiology of coral bleaching. (View paper) It was long day of presentations, and we figured we needed to do something to wake everyone up . . . so we wrote a song and hosted a raffle to see who could guess how many zooxanthellae cells were counted.

Words and music by David and Lindsay. Background humming part by Lindsay. This version is taken from a live video recording of the original performance of the song during our TRP presentation.



Download Recording or Watch Debut Video

The earth is heating up,
All the corals turn white,
And soon they fall dead
In the hot sunlight.
And you're asking yourself
Why should you care if it's true.
I'll tell you why coral bleaching is important to you.

The beauty won't be here
For your children to see,
No more nifty new cures
Or a guard from the sea.
When the reefs disappear
All the fish will go too.
And this is why coral bleaching is important to you

There will be nothing left to study
For your TRPs
Unless you want to get stuck
In those mangrove trees.
No more coral cuts
Or transects til your face turns blue.
And that's why coral bleaching is important to you

It damages the reefs
Both near and far,
But hey, it lets Ove
Be a TV star.
And when they're all gone
We'll be sad and blue.
And that's why coral bleaching is important to you.