TERRY DONE: The science tells us that it is climate change which may killing coral reefs.

My windshield was broken my tires were Off by angry people with no other way to express their anger than striking out at somebody. Marine biologist Sylvia Earle is executive 2005 Coast Florida Off Sharks of the Global Marine Program for Conservation International. But Ogden says even spell protection, there's a free-for-all atmosphere. STEVEN MILLER: cover you're a coral reef biologist, you've got to dive you've got to spend time in the environment that you're studying. And Sharks scuba diving is really limited.

• PAUL 1000 MARSHALL: Science school essential to saving coral reefs, but science doesn't actually result in change.
• BILLY CAUSEY: We no longer have some of the larger species out there, Florida grouper or snapper.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: One of the 2005 Aquarius scientists are seeing is disease, a major cause of coral death in the Keys. Correspondent Betty like Bowser explores what is being done to save the reefs in part one of a two-part series. They're home to thousands of species Sharks Off Florida Coast 2005 big and small fish, giant clams, schools of sharks, spiny lobsters, and eels. JIM LEHRER: In a future report, we'll look at why the Coast world is interested in the world's coral reefs. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Causey knows an expanded no-take zone would not guarantee survival of Florida's cause reefs.

From now on, in this new, so-called no-take zone, an area half the of Texas, visitors may look but they may not touch. As manager of the Florida National Marine Sanctuary for 21 years, he's watched with alarm at what over fishing has done.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But even those who never dive or swim on a in the Florida Keys can have a big impact on them. We saw black band disease, we saw a number of different types of diseases that scientists are still working and it was very disturbing to me. Land managers to restore Florida Everglades. We interviewed Terry Done 60 miles off the Australian coast at low tide, when Wheeler Reef forms a sandbar for a hours a day.

Imagine trying do your job if all you had was an hour a day. STEVEN MILLER: If we lose coral reefs, you know, it's the same answer: What happens if lose the rain forests?

Paul Marshall is a biologist with the Great Barrier Reef Park Authority. South disaster spurs tsunami alert effort. I own it's mine, but I have no responsibility for it. Done says the health of this reef evidence that set asides work. BETTY ANN BOWSER: Terry thinks Australia is off to a good start, but hopes it's not too late.

The NewsHour Science is funded by a grant from: The National Science Foundation. BETTY ANN Corals are living animals, spineless creatures called polyps. We lose something - lose the most dramatic and spectacular ecosystem on this planet. The agents of change are risk-management agencies, policy-makers, and the people who use the reef day day.

The government set aside more than one-third of the Great Barrier Reef, and made off- limits to fishing. Some scientists are so concerned that they believe if nothing is done coral reefs will be gone the Earth in 50 years. There's no evidence that they are really likely adapt as quickly as we would hope. We can see decreased clarity. It is like the land - the Oklahoma land rush of 1879.

And like his colleagues half a world away, Causey doesn't like what sees.