[Coral-List] 97% bleaching mortality on one reef area on Great Barrier Reef

[Douglas Fenner]

'Most of it was dead': scientists discover one of the Great Barrier Reef's
worst coral bleaching events

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/26/most-of-it-was-dead-scientists-discovers-one-of-great-barrier-reefs-worst-coral-bleaching-events

The 5th bleaching event on the GBR in 8 years

Also, a new article found that:

"After looking at the results of coral monitoring trips across 131 reefs
over more than 30 years, the scientists found the number of reefs hit by
disturbances had gone up from 6% in the 1980s to 44% in the 2010s.

The frequency of coral bleaching had increased between 19% and 38% a year,
and cyclone damage had also risen slightly, “resulting in less time for
recovery”."
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ecm.1619

not open-access, not author contact.

Earlier in the summer, the report was that

"The report says 39% of 1,080 individual reefs surveyed from the air had
experienced either very high (61-90% coral cover bleached) or extreme (more
than 90%) levels of bleaching. Such high levels had been observed on reefs
in all three regions of the park..."

"Prof Terry Hughes, a coral bleaching expert at James Cook University in
Queensland, said the evidence showed “this is the most widespread and most
severe bleaching event on record”.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/17/great-barrier-reef-extreme-coral-bleaching


Also a giant coral discovered on the Great Barrier Reef, 10.5 m wide and
5.3 m tall, estimated to be 421-438 years old.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/19/no-one-has-noticed-it-400-year-old-giant-coral-discovered-on-great-barrier-reef
-- 
Douglas Fenner
Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
NOAA Fisheries Service
Pacific Islands Regional Office
Honolulu
and:
Coral Reef Consulting
PO Box 997390
Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298  USA


“The ultimate question, I believe, is not whether mankind can afford to
leave a few places on our planet in near-natural conditions.  Rather, can
we afford not to?”   CRC Sheppard, 2024. The Chagos Archipelago, a
biological biography.  CRC Press.


Fenner, D. 2023. Corals of Hawai’i, 2nd edition.  Mutual Publishing,
Honolulu, and Maui Ocean Center.  440 pp.  (includes 167 page section on
coral biology and coral reef ecology)

https://mauioceancenter.com/shop/



Sheppard, C., Fenner, D., Sheppard, A.  2017.  Corals of Chagos.
http://chagosinformationportal.org/corals


Fenner, D.  2020.  Can we save coral reefs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SM8bEm3ocI&t=76s