Marine scientist Deborah Brosnan remembers "feeling like a visitor at an amazing party" on her diving trips to a bay near the Caribbean island of Saint Barthelemy where she swam above coral reefs with nurse sharks, sea turtles and countless colorful fish.
But on a return trip after Hurricane Irma ravaged the island in 2017, she dove the reef again — and was shocked by what she saw.
"Everything was dead," she recalled in an interview. "There were no sharks, no sea turtles, no sea grass, no living coral. I felt like I lost my friends."
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.