14-10-2015 07:00

Coral reefs represent less than 0.1 per cent of the ocean floor, but they support around 25 per cent of all marine species.

This year, coral reefs are suffering an underwater heatwave. It led to the third global bleaching event. A bleached coral is not colourful – it is white because you can see its skeleton.

Around 38 per cent of corals are going to be bleached this year, and 12,000 square kilometres of corals will die.

Difficult words: marine species (types of animals which live in the sea), suffer (if you suffer something, something bad is done to you), bleach (to make something white).

You can read the original story and watch the video in the Level 3 section.