For decades, the world's coral reefs have been in a decline. Now it looks like things are changing all around the Caribbean Isles.
British biologists report that the coral population has grown just off the Jamaica's northern coast.
Apparently, this growth may be attributed to sea urchins, whose number has been increasing considerably in the Caribbean for some time now. One staple in the sea urchin diet is sea grass, which is deadly for coral. In the early 1990s, coral reef growth had just about ground to a halt, based on a number of natural and man-made reasons which, among other things, had led to the proliferation of sea grass. Sea grass tends to simply grow over the coral, choking it. Biologists see the increased incidence of sea urchins as a positive signal, but point out that comparable developments have not yet been observed for other endangered coral reefs.