Where has our little orange, white, and black striped friend Nemo gone off to.
In the National Geographic magazine talks about how the climate change is weakening sea anemones. With the climate change weakening the anemones it cases them to expel tiny symbioses, things that keep them alive and lend them color. With the loss of this they are bleaching the ocean.
When bleaching happens it stresses clown fish out and they simply stop laying eggs which causes a fall in the fish population. Along with the bleaching the sea is absorbing excess amounts of carbon dioxide a process known as ocean acidification because of this it scrambles up the younger clown fishes’ brains. Ocean acidification effects the fishes’ ability to see, hear, and smell. This confusion can often lead them to swim to their prey instead of away. End result: they die more often then not.
The cause of all this is the loss of not only ocean plant life and the clown fish but many for ocean animals and their homes.
The lede would work pretty well for a younger audience. It’s conversational. You would want to answer the question directly, though, rather than first doing anemones. Do the WHAT before the WHY.
If yu do go for a young audience, you could use the last graf to “preach” a bit for action on climate change, because it’s young people who are going to have to solve the problems. Or not.