Child This episode is part of the Wild Critters USA series, a collaboration with Orby, PBS Nature, and the National Wildlife Federation.

Rob Well, Hank, this might be the first stop on our road trip that didn't come with any actual roads.

Rob You don't look so good, Hank.

Rob Do you get seasick?

Rob Well, hang in there, buddy.

Rob We're out here on our sailboat, turning our Wild Critters road trip into a boat trip.

Rob We're in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Hawaii.

Rob We're getting close to the island now.

Rob Come on, Hank, let's go look over the side.

Rob Whoa, look down there.

Rob Do you see that?

Rob It's so colorful.

Rob It kind of looks like an underwater city.

Rob I can see fish and stingrays.

Rob Wow, is that a shark?

Rob And look at all those green, red, and yellow things there on the bottom.

Rob What do you think those are?

Rob No, Hank, I don't think it's sunken pirate treasure, but that would be cool.

Rob I wonder what it is.

Rob Maybe it has something to do with those coral reefs that the captain was telling us about.

Rob I want to learn more, and you orbiters do too.

Child What is a coral reef?

Child What animals live in coral reefs?

Rob And we have an awesome expert to help us out.

Rob His name is Dr.

Rob Mike, and he's a marine scientist from the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Rob I can't wait to ask lots of questions to Dr.

Rob Mike.

Rob But first, let's go catch up with our buddy Milam.

Rob Welcome back, Milam.

Rob It's been so long.

Rob We're so happy to have you on Orbit.

Rob How are you doing, my man?

Child Good.

Rob And what is new in life?

Child I lost my tooth.

Child This tooth.

Child It's right next to the top right big one.

Rob I feel like someday I'm going to talk with you and you're going to be like, I don't have any teeth left.

Rob Every time we talk, you have lost a tooth.

Rob What happened?

Rob Did you get in a fight with a big animal or something like that and knocked your tooth out?

Child No, it was really, really wiggly and I could feel the bottom.

Child It was like coming out.

Child But then I was wiggling it and it got jammed sideways and it hurt.

Child So then I tried to put it back normal so that it wouldn't hurt and then I pulled it out.

Rob Wow.

Rob Well, very exciting.

Rob How many teeth now have you lost?

Child That was my 8th.

Rob Well, all right.

Rob So you're making some real progress.

Rob You've got some grown-up teeth coming in, right?

Child Yeah.

Rob All right, Milam, hey, before we learn about corals today, would you like to play a game?

Child Yeah.

Rob Okay, cool.

Rob Today's game is called Build A Coral Reef Neighborhood.

Rob And the good news is that you get to choose your neighbors.

Rob You have 5 neighbors and you get to decide what types of animals live in each house on your block.

Rob And families, you can play along as well.

Rob You get to choose your coral reef neighbors.

Rob Are you ready to get started, Mr.

Rob Milam.

Child No.

Rob Now you need a moment.

Child Fine, yes.

Rob Okay, now we're ready.

Rob All right.

Rob House #1, is a clownfish or a sea turtle going to live there?

Child Clownfish.

Rob Why is a clownfish?

Child They're funny because they're clowns.

Rob It reminds you of Finding Nemo.

Rob And house #2, an octopus or a reef shark.

Child Reef shark.

Rob And why reef sharks?

Child I like sharks.

Child They're my second favorite animal.

Rob All right, let's go to house #3.

Rob A parrot fish or a moray eel.

Child Moray eel, please.

Child I would.

Rob Yeah.

Rob Okay, we want a moray eel.

Rob I think eels are super cool, especially electric eels.

Rob All right, house #4, a crab or a seahorse?

Child A crab.

Rob What is it about crabs that you like?

Child I found over 100 crab shells.

Rob When you went to the beach last time?

Child Yeah.

Rob That is so cool.

Rob All right, house #5 is a wild card.

Rob You get to choose.

Rob Who's going to live in that one?

Child Sea cucumber.

Rob Oh, a sea cucumber.

Rob That's an interesting choice.

Child They're the weirdest sea animal.

Rob They're weird.

Child They look like cucumbers.

Child And they shoot out their organs.

Child Yeah.

Rob They shoot out their organs.

Rob That's kind of a, that's a weird thing to do.

Rob Now let's learn a little bit about your neighbors.

Rob Which neighbor would throw the best birthday party?

Rob Black tip reef shark.

Rob And why would it have the best birthday party?

Rob Because.

Child Only a couple people would go to it because all the fishies wouldn't because then they would just get eaten.

Child So there would be a lot of space to do stuff.

Child Woohoo.

Rob Yeah, get wide open.

Rob Very, very low attendance at this reef shark birthday party.

Rob All right, second one.

Rob Which one would have the messiest home?

Child Sea cucumber because it shoots out its organs.

Child but have organs all over the floor.

Child Sea cucumbers and the organs.

Rob Yeah, I don't think I would want to go into a sea cucumbers home.

Rob All right, which one would have the best snacks?

Child Crab, because it has pinchers so it can cut open big ones into tinier sections.

Rob I feel like the pinchers Rob Its little claws would be perfect for snacking.

Rob And which one would be the best babysitter?

Child Clownfish.

Child Because they're clowns, so they would entertain the kids.

Rob It would be the funniest one, that's for sure.

Rob All right, final question.

Rob You get to design the house in the coral reef that you live in.

Rob What would it look like?

Child Shiny color changing rainbow house in a really cool shape, and it has a lot of windows and balconies to enjoy the ocean view.

Rob I bet it would have a really cool view.

Rob Why don't we go ahead and jump into this episode?

Rob Are there things about corals or coral reefs that you're interested in learning today?

Child What is coral bleaching?

Rob It's super interesting and it has to do with the relationship between corals and algae.

Rob It's super interesting.

Rob Do you want to help me introduce our episode guest?

Child Yeah.

Rob Today's guest is Dr.

Rob Mike Henley from the Smithsonian's Rob National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Child Hi Dr.

Child Mike, welcome to Orbit.

Child What do you do for work?

Mike Henley Hi Orbiters, thanks so much for joining us today.

Mike Henley My name is Dr.

Mike Henley Mike Henley and I am a marine scientist with the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Mike Henley I'm physically stationed and work at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology on a tiny little island called Moku Oloe, also known as Coconut Island, and I work with corals, coral reef reduction, and coral reef conservation.

Rob Hey Milam, are you ready to learn about coral reefs with Dr.

Rob Mike.

Child Maybe, but yeah, if you want me to begin, sure.

Rob Okay, let's get started.

Rob Hey parents, if your little ones would like to submit questions for upcoming episodes of Orbit, just visit the link we'll leave in the show notes.

Rob Speaking of questions, let's get started learning with Dr.

Rob Mike.

Rob All right, Dr.

Rob Mike, Hank and I have some very serious questions.

Rob We saw some corals underwater, and I think they're sticks at the bottom of the ocean, but Hank thinks that they're pirate treasure.

Rob And orbiters, pay close attention.

Rob There's going to be a quiz in a moment about the three animals that Dr.

Rob Mike mentions.

Mike Henley A coral is a tiny little animal related to sea anemones and jellyfish.

Mike Henley Sea anemones, jellies, and corals all have stinging cells in their tentacles, which help defend themselves and also capture food.

Mike Henley So now if you can picture a jellyfish with its long flowing tentacles coming down, and then take that jellyfish, turn it upside down, and attach it to the ocean floor.

Mike Henley This is more or less a sea anemone.

Mike Henley So now take that anemone and shrink it down even further until it's just a few millimeters across, surround it with a stony skeleton, and now you have a coral or a coral polyp.

Mike Henley And so most of these corals or these coral polyps are living in a colony.

Mike Henley So you take that little coral polyp and you replicate it or clone it thousands and thousands or hundreds of thousands of times, and that becomes your big coral colony.

Rob Okay, orbiters, quiz time.

Rob Dr.

Rob Mike mentioned 3 related marine animals that all have stinging cells in their tentacles.

Rob The jellyfish, the sea anemone, and the coral polyp.

Rob Here's the quiz.

Rob Which one floats in the water and its tentacles hang down?

Rob Jellyfish.

Rob Which is attached to the ocean floor and its tentacles point upward?

Rob Sea anemone.

Rob And last, but certainly not least, but definitely the smallest, which one is a tiny little animal that lives in a stony skeleton in a big colony, which basically means with thousands and thousands of its friends?

Rob Did you get it?

Rob It's a coral polyp.

Rob Hey, orbiters, let's get this party started with a super cool fun fact that Dr.

Rob Mike told me.

Rob As a warning, it's kind of gross.

Mike Henley The corals, jellyfish, sea anemones, they all only have one opening and that's their mouth.

Mike Henley When they eat something, it goes down into the gut and it gets digested.

Mike Henley Similar story with you and me, but here's where it turns a little bit different.

Mike Henley So everything on this planet that eats eventually has to go to the bathroom.

Mike Henley they only have one opening and that's the mouth.

Mike Henley So corals, anemones, jellyfish, they have to poop out their mouth.

Rob They poop out of their mouth?

Rob That is so weird.

Rob But weird is Hank's and my favorite type of fun fact.

Rob Right, Hank?

Rob That means yes.

Rob Okay, next question?

Child Hi, my name is Alina.

Child I live in Irvine, California, and my question is, how are baby corals made?

Child Bye, Orbeit.

Child Have a good week.

Child Hello, I am Luis Mario.

Child I am 5, and my question is, how curdles reproduce?

Mike Henley That's a great question, Alina and Luis Mario, because most people don't even know that corals are animals.

Mike Henley Corals are animals, they're not plants.

Mike Henley They're not sticks that live on the ocean floor.

Rob And apparently they're not sucking pirate treasure either, Hank.

Rob Hey, Dr.

Rob Mike.

Rob So how do these weird little pooping out of the mouth animals make babies?

Mike Henley So most corals reproduce by what we call broadcast spawning.

Mike Henley And that means what they do is that they will release their egg and sperm into the water column.

Rob This egg is a tiny cell.

Rob It has the mom's puzzle piece of genetic information called DNA.

Rob Then the dad's puzzle piece is another cell called a sperm cell.

Rob So in broadcast spawning, all these puzzle pieces are just floating around in the water waiting to bump into each other.

Rob And when the mom puzzle piece joins with the dad puzzle piece, the puzzle is completed and a baby polyp is born.

Rob Hey Dr.

Rob Mike, what's a baby coral called?

Mike Henley And that developing baby coral, what we call a larva, or larvae is plural, that developing baby coral is going to drift in the open ocean for a few days, a few weeks or months before it's going to settle down onto a reef somewhere else and become a new coral colony.

Mike Henley And on the nights when these corals are broadcast spawning, there could be 10s of thousands or millions of larvae produced in one of these mass spawning events.

Rob A mass spawning event means when lots of coral moms and dads release their tiny puzzle pieces at the same time, which makes it more likely that they run into each other and create larvae.

Mike Henley I've been in the ocean where it just looks it's an underwater snowstorm, except the snow is coming up from the sea floor.

Mike Henley It's amazing.

Rob Orbiters, wiggle your fingers like they are coral larvae in underwater broadcast spawning snowstorm.

Child Hi my name is Julian.

Child I'm seven years old and my question is why if you touch a coral reef it dies but if a fish touches it it won't die.

Child Thanks for that question, Julian.

Mike Henley So if you touch a coral, they may not necessarily die, but they're also going to feel very slimy.

Mike Henley And this is because the corals will coat themselves in a slimy mucus coating, and that's just for protection.

Mike Henley So when you touch the coral, you're wiping off that protective slimy coat, which could leave them more vulnerable to some bacteria, virus, infection, for example.

Mike Henley Now most fish actually leave the corals alone, or maybe use them to hide in Mike Henley or hunt around for food.

Rob Did you hear that, Hank?

Rob We should leave the slime alone.

Rob No, Hank, you shouldn't lick the slime either.

Rob I don't think that would taste very good.

Child Hello, my name is Josh and I'm from Houston, Texas Child years old and my question is what is a coral reef?

Mike Henley Great question Josh.

Mike Henley Coral reefs are these huge vast ecosystems that support millions of animals and plants.

Mike Henley They are built by some of the smallest animals in the world, and those are these tiny little coral polyps.

Mike Henley And so those coral polyps are living together in this colony, and the reef is made-up of their stony skeletons that they produce and they live in for protection.

Mike Henley So this coral reef is built by the collective effort of these tiny little coral polyps producing these stony skeletons, and the rest of the plants and animals live in and around these massive structures that are built by some of these tiniest little smallest animals.

Rob Okay, so corals have Rob stony skeletons that are super slimy, but underneath, they're hard as rocks.

Rob That reminds me of this super interesting question from our friend Wells.

Child Hello, my name is Wells.

Child I'm from Houston, Texas, and I'm 5 years old.

Child My question is, what animals eat coral?

Rob Since they're super hard, I bet nothing eats them.

Rob They'd probably lose their teeth, kind of like Milum.

Rob But just to be sure, we brought this question to our friend David Mizajewski.

Rob Mr.

Rob David is a science advisor for Ranger Rick Magazine from the National Wildlife Federation and is helping us out with this Wild Critter series.

Rob Hey, Mr.

Rob David, does anything eat corals?

David Mizejewski Oh, this is super interesting, Wells.

David Mizejewski Inside that hard outer David Mizejewski skeleton, the living coral is actually a soft-bodied animal called a polyp.

David Mizejewski If you tried to eat coral, you'd break your teeth on that hard skeleton.

David Mizejewski But for some sea creatures, that's not a problem.

David Mizejewski Parrotfish have strong teeth that form a beak like a parrot's that they use to crunch on coral.

David Mizejewski They're mostly feeding on algae that grows in the coral, but some parrotfish species also eat the soft coral polyps inside the skeleton.

David Mizejewski And even before they form their skeleton, corals are an important part of the ocean food web.

David Mizejewski Before they become part of the reef and grow a skeleton, David Mizejewski Soft coral larvae are part of zooplankton, which are tiny animals floating in the water, which many ocean animals, from fish to whales, rely on for food.

Rob Wow, that is so cool.

Rob Thank you, Mr.

Rob David.

Rob And parents, if you'd like to check out the activities and wildlife resources from Ranger Rick Magazine, I'll leave a link in the show notes.

Rob Okay, let's keep learning.

Child Hi, my name is Cristobal.

Child I'm 6 years old and my question is, why are coral reefs so important for the world?

Child Hi, my name is Federico.

Child I live, I'm 5 years old.

Child I live in Gainesville.

Child And my question is... Child What animals live in coral reefs?

Mike Henley This is a great question.

Mike Henley Yes, reefs are essential to the health of our oceans.

Mike Henley Approximately 25% or 1/4 of marine life spend at least part of their life on or around a coral reef.

Mike Henley So they're providing food and habitat for those plants and animals.

Mike Henley The diversity of life on a tropical coral reef is comparable to those found in tropical rainforests.

Mike Henley And you've got everything from fish, crabs, lobsters, worms, snails, octopus, squid, and Mike Henley so, much more.

Mike Henley They are protecting coastlines from storms and hurricanes.

Mike Henley They're sources of food that support the economy and the people that live near them.

Mike Henley And they are potential sources of medicine for us.

Rob Hey, orbiters, which one of the animals that Dr.

Rob Mike mentioned is your favorite coral reef animal?

Rob Clap once when you hear one you like and shout woohoo whenever you hear one that you really like.

Rob Lobsters, an octopus, a shark.

Rob a school of colorful fish, worms, snails, squid, or something else.

Rob You can pause here to talk as a family.

Child Hello, my name is Advait.

Child I am seven years old.

Child I live in Jammu, India.

Child My question is, Child Why do oceans have coral reefs?

Rob Yeah, good question, Edward.

Rob Dr.

Rob Mike, I've been to places in the ocean where there's just sand at the bottom.

Rob No coral reefs.

Rob We want to know why do coral reefs exist in some places in the ocean?

Mike Henley Hey, Edward, great question.

Mike Henley Well, oceans have coral reefs because these teeny tiny little animals called corals are building that huge underwater near-shore structure called the reef with their stony skeletons.

Mike Henley But the waters where corals live, these tropical warm waters, are, well, Mike Henley they're also very clear.

Mike Henley There's not a lot of microscopic food floating around that water.

Mike Henley And so what we say is that these waters are oligotrophic, and that's such a big fancy word that means low in nutrients.

Mike Henley So we have waters that are low in nutrients, and yet life is everywhere.

Mike Henley How is this even possible?

Rob That's a good question, Dr.

Rob Mike.

Rob Hank, what do you think?

Rob If there are no nutrients floating around in the water, do you know why corals choose to live there, even though there's not a lot of food?

Rob Hank says he doesn't know either, Dr.

Rob Mike.

Rob Can you help us out?

Mike Henley Well, the corals have adapted and specialized to live in these waters where there's not much food around.

Mike Henley The water is very clear, and that means the light is penetrating down very far, very deep into the water.

Mike Henley Now, corals are animals, they're not plants, but they have established Mike Henley established a special relationship with some plants that actually live in and around these reefs.

Rob Hey Orbiters, pop quiz.

Rob Do you remember how plants make food?

Rob I'll give you a hint.

Rob It starts with photo.

Rob That's right, through photosynthesis.

Rob You and I can't use sunlight to make food, but a plant can.

Rob Hey, Dr.

Rob Mike, is this where the algae show up?

Mike Henley Great, great question.

Mike Henley We absolutely need to talk about the algae.

Mike Henley So an algae, singular or algae, plural.

Mike Henley They're a type of aquatic plant or plant-like organisms.

Mike Henley So commonly, they're often referred to as seaweed.

Mike Henley You may have heard that.

Mike Henley But they can be huge, tall plants like kelp, or they can be smaller, little tufts that look almost like grass growing Mike Henley near shore, or they can be microscopic, and this is what we would call phytoplankton.

Mike Henley But whether it's the big massive kelp or the tiny little phytoplankton, they're all doing just as land plants do, and that's using the sun's light as energy through photosynthesis.

Mike Henley And through photosynthesis, they're creating their own food, but they're also producing waste in the form of sugars.

Rob now that is cool.

Rob So algae combines sunlight with carbon dioxide in the water and create oxygen and sugars, just like the little cactus I have sitting on my table, but underwater and less prickly.

Mike Henley Now, remember corals are animals, not plants.

Mike Henley that cannot produce their own food.

Mike Henley Where they get most of their food is from this very unique partnership.

Mike Henley These corals have evolved this partnership with some of these single-celled algae, these phytoplankton, that the algae get a safe home in the coral to live in that coral, and the algae are doing just what plants do, photosynthesis, producing those sugars that then become food for the corals.

Rob I love learning about a cool animal-plant partnership.

Rob Don't you, Orbiters?

Rob But how about we pause for a mystery sound?

Rob You can move around and wiggle while you listen and think about what the sound is.

Rob Here's a hint in the form of a riddle.

Rob Feed me all day, I munch and crunch, but I never, ever eat lunch.

Rob What am I?

Rob Stick around to the end for the answer.

Rob Okay, let's get back to more questions.

Child Hi, I'm Samantha.

Child I'm from Costa Rica.

Child I'm seven years old.

Child And my question is how temperature can affect car loss.

Child Bye, thank you.

Child Hi, my name's Luna.

Child I'm 6 years old and I live in New York.

Child And my question is, what is coral bleaching?

Rob Luna said a word in there, bleaching.

Rob In this case, bleaching means that something used to be colorful, but then it turns white.

Rob Okay, Dr.

Rob Mike, can you help us out?

Mike Henley Great question, Samantha and Luna.

Mike Henley Yes, much of life has a balance.

Mike Henley Not too much, not too little.

Mike Henley When the ocean waters get too cold, those tropical corals can't live there.

Mike Henley But likewise, when the ocean temperature Mike Henley temperatures rise, it gets too warm for this coral-algae partnership.

Mike Henley And so what happens basically as the ocean temperatures increase, this photosynthesis goes into overdrive and this partnership will break down.

Rob So in the warm water, the algae are like, woohoo, let's photosynthesize.

Mike Henley And what the algae are producing, the sugars, it becomes too toxic for the corals.

Mike Henley So they have to get rid of some or nearly all of their algae sometimes.

Mike Henley So the coral skin, their tissue, their skin, it's actually almost clear.

Mike Henley Most of the color you see is actually from the algae living inside them.

Mike Henley And so when that algae is gone, that clear, translucent skin shows the bare white skeleton beneath.

Rob So that's when they turn white, when they don't have algae.

Rob Does that mean these corals are dead, Dr.

Rob Mike.

Mike Henley Now, a bleached coral is still very Mike Henley much alive, but they've lost their main source of food, those sugars from the algae.

Mike Henley If the temperatures go back down, they can recolonize and come back into the coral, but if they stay too hot for too long, sometimes the corals actually die.

Rob Gotcha.

Rob So a white coral doesn't mean it's dead, but it does mean it's in danger.

Rob Dr.

Rob Mike told me some cool things about the coral reefs in Hawaii.

Rob There's been a lot of people who have moved to Hawaii in the last 100 years, and all these people were building houses and things.

Rob And that stirred up dirt and stuff called sediments that got into the water and covered the coral reefs and made it hard for the algae to get sunlight to photosynthesize.

Rob And it may get worse.

Rob All those people are going to the bathroom.

Rob And then they built pipes that dumped the poop and sewage into the ocean, right on top of some of the reefs in the bay.

Mike Henley So that's really kind of gross, right?

Mike Henley Well, what happened was almost all of the coral in Kaneohe Bay died.

Mike Henley So in the 1970s, those sewage lines were removed from the bay, which removed that major source of pollution from those reefs.

Mike Henley And this was a turning point for sea life, especially in the bay, for corals.

Mike Henley Since the 1970s, the coral has returned in a really remarkable way.

Mike Henley And today, Kaneohe Bay is some of the highest amount of live Mike Henley coral among all of the main Hawaiian islands.

Mike Henley It's a really amazing story of recovery.

Mike Henley Wow.

Rob So when people removed all the yucky pollution and took care of the ecosystem, the corals and the algae and the sharks and the fish and the octopuses and the squids and the lobsters and oh, thanks Hank.

Rob Yes, all those amazing plants and animals moved back.

Rob Dr.

Rob Mike told me something else that's super cool.

Rob All the construction changed Rob how the water moves around in this specific bay.

Rob And the result was that water got warmer than the surrounding ocean.

Rob Now, we learned that warm water can be bad for corals because of coral bleaching.

Rob But in this case, the corals and the algae are doing really well together.

Rob So scientists like Dr.

Rob Mike are studying these coral reefs in Hawaii to learn why these corals are doing so well.

Rob They hope these lessons can help them take care of coral reefs in other parts of the world where the ocean temperatures are rising and coral bleaching is happening.

Rob Isn't science cool, Orbiters?

Rob Especially when it's saving all these beautiful animals and habitats.

Rob All right, how about we go check in with our buddy Milam?

Rob Hey, Milam, are you ready to take a short break and stretch and move around a little bit?

Child I got your back.

Rob Okay.

Rob All right, what kind of movement should orbiters do today?

Child This is pretty advanced.

Child While sitting, put your feet flat on the ground with your knees up, thread your hands and arms through your calves, and claw your hands together.

Rob Okay, so Milam, can you show me how to do this?

Rob I'm going to try to describe it.

Rob All right, so your elbows go on the outside of your knees, and then you're holding your hands in the middle, but your arms are underneath your knees.

Rob And while we're doing this incredible pretzel shape, let's recap what we've learned.

Rob Coral reefs are giant underwater ecosystems built by some of the smallest animals in the ocean, tiny coral polyps that live together in huge colonies.

Rob We learned that corals aren't plants and they're not rocks.

Rob They're actually animals related to jellyfish and sea anemones, and they get most of their food from a special partnership with algae living inside their colonies.

Rob When ocean water gets too warm, Rob That partnership breaks down and the coral loses its color in a process called coral bleaching.

Rob But A bleached coral isn't dead.

Rob It's just in danger.

Rob Scientists like Dr.

Rob Mike are studying places like the coral reefs in Hawaii so they can learn how to protect coral reefs all around the world.

Rob Okay, let's get to this important question from Elisa.

Child Hi, I'm Elisa.

Child I'm 9 years old and I live in Ecuador.

Child And my question is, how can I help coral reefs to stay healthy?

Child Bye.

Mike Henley Hey Elisa, good question.

Mike Henley If you decide to eat fish that come from a reef or somewhere else in the ocean, see if you can find out how it was caught or if it came from a regulated or sustainable fishery.

Mike Henley Try to make sure that fish that we eat are not depleting those on the reef or elsewhere in the ocean.

Mike Henley If you are lucky enough to visit Mike Henley visit a reef, please do your best to not walk on or touch or stand on the coral.

Mike Henley Learn how to snorkel and swim before you just jump right in the ocean and trample all over it.

Mike Henley We don't want to do that.

Mike Henley And it's tempting to buy pieces of coral to take home from a shop.

Mike Henley And I recommend taking pictures and memories instead.

Rob I've taken lots of pictures on this wild critters trip, mostly of Hank.

Rob Hank eating breakfast, Hank sniffing a fire hydrant, Hank sleeping, Hank chasing squirrels.

Rob Hey, Dr.

Rob Mike, how can families continue to learn about coral reefs?

Mike Henley Well, I love a visit to a zoo or a local public aquarium if you live near one or make it part of your next trip somewhere.

Mike Henley There are several amazing documentaries that highlight reefs.

Mike Henley And of course, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum's website, ocean.si.edu, is a great resource as well as NOAA.

Mike Henley NOAA has great coral reef educational materials as well.

Rob We'll put some cool links in the show notes.

Rob Hey, Dr.

Rob Mike, thanks for joining us on Orbit today.

Mike Henley Thanks to all of you Orbiter for tuning in along this journey to learn about some of the most amazing and smallest, yet most industrious tiny animals found in our amazing blue oceans.

Mike Henley I find them so fascinating.

Mike Henley And so I hope to see you on the reef sometime and ahoy ho.

Rob Hey parents, our guest today was Dr.

Rob Mike Henley, a marine scientist with the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.

Rob You can find more information about the Smithsonian Institute and its coral research programs in the show notes.

Rob Hey, before we wrap up, I bet a few of you are curious about the mystery sound.

Rob Do you remember it?

Rob Here was the hint.

Rob Feed me all day.

Rob I munch and crunch, but I never ever eat lunch.

Rob What am I?

Rob If you said it's a paper shredder, you were right.

Rob Way to go.

Rob All right, let's go check in with Milam one more time.

Rob Hey Mr.

Rob Milam, what did you think about learning with Dr.

Rob Mike.

Child I thought he was great.

Child He talked about corals.

Rob He was very excited about corals.

Rob Dr.

Rob Mike might be the most excited person I've ever talked with when talking about corals.

Rob Before we say goodbye, why don't we give families a conversation starter?

Rob What is something that families can talk about or do together?

Child Ask your family if they would ever want to go scuba diving or snorkeling at a coral reef.

Child Research which coral reef you'd like to see one day.

Rob That's really cool.

Rob Hey, Mr.

Rob Milam, any special messages for our audiences today?

Child Say cheese.

Child If the cheese is stinky, then don't say cheese.

Rob Okay, so say cheese unless the cheese is stinky, in which case, say something else.

Child Yeah.

Rob All right, the cheese over here is not stinky, so we'll say cheese to everybody.

Rob All right, bye everybody.

Child Cheese.

Rob This episode is part of the Wild Critters series, a collaboration with our friends at PBS Nature and the National Wildlife Federation.

Rob Orbit is produced by Cumbre Kids.

Rob This episode was written by me, Robert Carpenter.

Rob The producer is Herwin Riera.

Rob Artwork for the episode by Moises Monsalve and Jorge Wake.

Rob Parents, if you enjoyed this episode, can you think of a friend's family who you would like to share it with?

Rob Thank you for your help.

Rob We'll see you in the next episode.

Rob Ciao.

Child The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Child Albert Einstein.