Large pieces of brain coral are washing ashore on Texas beaches, likely due to storms or other underwater disturbances. Brain coral, a slow-growing hard coral, forms important reef habitats in the ...

But those corals could be under threat. During a dive in early September, researchers documented lesions and tissue loss on the brain and star coral — symptoms of the dreaded Stony Coral Tissue ...

Danielle Lasseigne, left, a research technician at the University of the Virgin Islands, cuts a symmetrical brain coral called Pseudodiploria strigosa near St. Thomas with a steel chisel to remove ...