Seascape footage with bleached finger corals among colorful reefs

Fading Reef Beneath the Waves.

This seascape video shot captures a sprawling reef landscape filled with layers of bleached finger corals interspersed with patches of vibrant, healthy coral species. The bleached corals appear in bright white clusters, creating a stark contrast against the diverse colors of neighboring corals, including yellow, purple, and brown hues. Various fish swim throughout the reef, adding movement to the footage as they navigate around coral branches and between rocks. In the background of the clip, the clear, blue ocean water allows for excellent visibility, showcasing both the foreground detail of the coral structures and the distant contours of the underwater landscape. 

Hard Corals Bleaching in Nearshore Shallows on 4K Free Stock Footage.

This footage of bleached finger and fire corals alongside healthy brown Porites corals was filmed in high-definition 4K and available in HD (1080p), it was captured with top-tier professional equipment for maximum clarity. Available as free stock footage to support coral reef awareness, it’s offered in both landscape (16:9) and vertical (9:16) formats for use across social media platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts. Its quality and adaptability make it perfect for environmental campaigns, NGO projects, and educational materials focused on coral health and disease research.

When corals undergo bleaching due to environmental stressors like elevated temperatures, they lose their symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae, which compromises their immune system and leaves them vulnerable to diseases like black band disease (BBD). BBD is a polymicrobial infection driven by cyanobacteria, which produces a dark, advancing band on coral tissue as it kills the underlying tissue. Once corals are bleached, they cannot sustain the protective mucus layer that typically guards them against pathogens, leaving them exposed to infections such as BBD. BBD progresses quickly in warm conditions, further depleting coral health and ecosystem stability in affected regions. Studies have shown that BBD prevalence increases significantly when temperatures exceed 27.5°C, a threshold commonly surpassed during summer months in many coral habitats.