Steady shot of bleached, branching table coral in clear sea water

A World Without Hue: Bleached Corals.

A vast, branching table coral dominates the frame of this free stock footage, its once-vibrant structure now completely bleached to a soft, bone-white color. The fan-like bleached coral spreads out in thin, interwoven branches, each one reaching into the open water. The coral's pale color starkly contrasts with the surrounding ocean while small fish weave in and out of the coral’s fine network of branches. A few tiny, colorful fish—bright orange and black—explore the edges of the coral, bringing brief flashes of color to the video clip. Below, the rocky base and darker corals in the distance add a textured foundation, grounding the bleached coral against the vibrant reef surroundings.

Static Shot of Bleached Branching Coral in Blue Water.

This steady, close-up footage of the branching table coral was expertly filmed in ultra-high-definition 4K (2160p) and edited with an HD (1080p) resolution version as well, this stock footage offers a detailed look at the fragile structure of table coral. Available in both landscape (16:9 aspect ratio) and vertical (9:16 aspect ratio) formats, this video is perfect for a wide range of uses, including social media platforms like Instagram Reels, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, as well as for environmental campaigns, NGO initiatives, documentaries, and educational content focused on coral health and conservation.

Table corals, part of the Acropora family, are highly vulnerable to bleaching due to their specific biological needs and structure. Even minor increases in water temperature can trigger stress in table corals, causing them to expel these algae and resulting in a white, bleached appearance. This sensitivity makes table coral among the first coral species to bleach during temperature spikes, often within days of exposure to elevated water temperatures. Because of their fast growth rate, table corals tend to invest less in their skeletal density, which, while promoting rapid expansion, also makes them structurally weaker and more susceptible to physical damage. In bleached form, they are even more fragile, with little resistance to diseases that can follow bleaching events.