Coral Bleaching

beautiful coral The aim of this site is to create an awareness of coral bleaching and its disastrous effects. Included is a link which will show how to prevent and combat these effects. I have only been diving in Fiji for a short time and already the impact of this rapidly developing hazard are blindingly obvious.

dieing coral Coral bleaching occurs when reefs are stressed, usually by excessively warm water. When the coral goes into stress, it expels the algae living inside it. These algae, called zooxanthellae, enable the coral to turn light from the sun into energy and oxygen and they help provide the corals' colour. Prolonged bleaching events, like the one observed this year in the Pacific, have resulted in the death of 95 per cent or more of bleached corals in many parts of the world. Most corals that are completely bleached, eventually die after being invaded by green algae.

bleached coral Latest on the South Pacific - Unusually warm seas in the South Pacific this summer have led to the bleaching of coral reefs from as far north as Papua New Guinea, south to Fiji and east to the Cook Islands. Temperatures in some areas were as high as 31 degrees C as late as mid-April, giving little relief to coral reefs - many of which began to show signs of bleaching in mid-February. Satellite recordings by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) have revealed unusually high temperatures in a wide area across the Pacific. NOAA predicts mass bleaching episodes by tracking the development of "hotspots" in the world's oceans.