Reefs are the perfect hiding place for smaller fi sh. But an Australian research team found that if the coral becomes bleached-out (as a result of rising sea temperatures) and organisms like cnidaria and algae die, the reef’s residents appear to lose their minds. Vulnerable fi sh begin swimming around unprotected, making no effort to hide themselves, resulting in a mortality rate rise of 75%. What triggers this behaviour is still a mystery, but researchers suspect the fi sh are desperately searching for certain chemical signals that the dead reefs no longer emit.
