reef

In one dramatic episode, an American ship, the Philadelphia, was grounded on a reef and captured, but in 1804, the Americans launched a successful mission to rescue her with no casualties.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

Cleaner fish remove parasites from larger reef fish and receive a meal in return.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 20, 2026

The 39-year-old man died from a critical head injury after he was attacked while spearfishing at Kennedy Shoal, an offshore reef, Queensland police said.

From Barron's ● May 24, 2026

It also pledges to maintain food security and government revenue despite declining reef fisheries.

From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2026

The day was windless, and since I had all I could carry, I tied the canoe, and with Rontu following me, climbed onto the reef to look for fish to spear for our supper.

From "Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O'Dell

Oceanographers at the state-controlled Chinese Academy of Sciences said the platform was a temporary scientific research facility studying the shoal’s coral reefs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

Wildfires, floods, melting ice caps, heat waves, the bleaching of ocean reefs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026

The environments where octopuses live, including coral reefs and the seafloor, are often highly complex and filled with obstacles.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2026

However, out on the disputed reefs, Vietnam has gone on a dredging spree, using the same powerful cutter suction ships as China.

From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026

However, the rocky coasts of Easter, Pitcairn, and the Marquesas, and the steeply dropping ocean bottom and absence of coral reefs around those islands, are much less productive of seafood.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Divers and many fishermen want more to be reefed; shrimpers complain that reefs prevent them from dragging nets across parts of the ocean floor.

From Economist ● Jun. 12, 2014

John Hocevar, its head of ocean campaigns, concedes that in some locations reefed platforms, if non-toxic, may increase marine life.

From Economist ● Jun. 12, 2014

The firm has only reefed 12 of the 60 Gulf of Mexico platforms it has decommissioned.

From Economist ● Jun. 12, 2014

It was a ribbon chute made of concentric rings of strong fabric 2 in. wide, and at first it was reefed by a band around it to lower the shock of opening.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was a sailboat with rusty red sails reefed around the booms of the fore and aft masts.

From "Hole in My Life" by Jack Gantos

Part of that action is Patten’s realization that the sailor’s standard storm tactics—including reefing, heaving-to and lying a-hull—will not work in such an intense blow.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement urges states to issue reefing permits.

From Economist ● Jun. 12, 2014

State coffers gain: oil firms typically hand over half the money they save by reefing.

From Economist ● Jun. 12, 2014

Farther down the fleet, the crew on Carlo Falcone's 67-year-old Fife-designed yawl Mariella were busy reefing and shaking in tune with the lightning-lit 40-knot squalls, until losing the top of their mizzenmast.

From Time Magazine Archive

Pole Star was reefing its own sails and slowing, guiding itself with the minimum acceleration so that it could come up beside them and board.

From "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi