"NORMANBY ISLAND, Papua New Guinea -- Katharina Fabricius plunged from a dive boat into the Pacific Ocean of tomorrow."
"She kicked through blue water until she spotted a ceramic tile attached to the bottom of a reef.
A year earlier, the ecologist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science had placed this small square near a fissure in the sea floor where gas bubbles up from the earth. She hoped the next generation of baby corals would settle on it and take root."
Craig Welch reports part one of a three-part multimedia series for the Seattle Times with photographs by Steve Ringman. The series was produced, in part, with funding from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
SEE ALSO:
Part Two: "Lucrative Crab Industry in Danger"
Part Three: "Oysters Dying as Coast Is Hit Hard"
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