NOAA: World on brink of mass coral bleaching event

| 13/03/2024 | 24 Comments
Cayman News Service
Bleached Elkhorn coral (Photo credit: CCMI)

(CNS): The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has warned that the world is on the brink of a fourth mass coral bleaching event in which a significant amount of tropical reefs might die. After months of record-breaking ocean heat resulting from climate change and the El Niño climate pattern, Derek Manzello, the coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch, which serves as the global monitoring authority on coral bleaching risk, said that “the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere is probably going to bleach this year”.

This year is on course to exceed the last mass coral bleaching between 2014 and 2017, which is thought to have led to around 15% of the planet’s reefs experiencing large coral die-offs. But this year is shaping up to be even worse. “We are literally sitting on the cusp of the worst bleaching event in the history of the planet,” Manzello told Reuters recently.

The news follows the steaming summer last year, when waters in the Atlantic and Caribbean reached record-breaking levels, fueling this region’s worst coral bleaching on record.

According to the latest data, Grand Cayman is on watch for a bleaching event through June. The bleaching threat to local reefs is compounded by the spread of stony coral tissue loss disease, which has impacted all of the reefs around Grand Cayman.


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Category: Marine Environment, Science & Nature

Comments (24)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The first floating city on Earth – why is it being built and will it save the Maldives from flooding?

    “The Maldives is not only a paradise in the middle of the Indian Ocean with beaches, warm water, Instagram views and crowds of tourists from all over the world. But behind the beautiful picture of hotels there are social and economic problems: people live poorly, education in schools raises questions, and next to ideal resorts there are mountains of garbage and smoking landfills. But the most important thing is that in just a few decades, the country may simply cease to exist due to global warming! And well-known people will help us save the islanders!
    Today we will look at the problems of the capital, study plans for a new artificial island of Hulhumale and why the Dutch decided to build the world’s first floating city.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY-gIvlTk9k

  2. Anonymous says:

    Will Trumpet deniers also say this is not so?

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  3. Anonymous says:

    200 comments on turtle meat, 5 comments on pollution, climate change. We deserve what is coming.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes, more climate as we have had it for the last 5000-10000 years

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      • Anonymous says:

        🌏 P o l l u t I o n! pol·lu·tion 🆘

        🪐 Space is polluted
        💨 Air is polluted
        🌊 All bodies of water are polluted
        🐳🐡🐬🐠🐟 Marine life is polluted
        🏞️ Land/soil is polluted
        🗻 Mountains are polluted
        🩻 Human bodies are polluted
        🌸🐇🐻🦡 Flora and fauna are polluted
        🌾 Crops are polluted
        🐄🐖 Animal husbandry is polluted

        And you are saying this has no effect on anything?? We deserve to go extinct.

  4. Anonymous says:

    The coral is not the only thing being bleached en masse, apparently.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Might as well slaughter all of the turtles as their habitat is dying.

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  6. Arizona Bay Swim Champ says:

    Down goes the dive industry and dive tourism to the fault of mankind’s insatiable thirst for profits.

    Global leaders have failed the earth and we are powerless to stop the coming changes, but we can focus on conservation efforts here and hope to lessen the effects.

    The film “Don’t Look Up” deserves a sequel of “Don’t Look Down”.

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    • Anonymous says:

      As much as you’re right, I remember the words of the late great George Carlin: “The planet is fine. The people are doomed.”

      He may have said it more colourfully than I have remembered him here.

      The Earth has been through far worse than carbon dioxide and microplastics. We are not killing the planet. We are destroying our ability to live on it.

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    • CLKCMO says:

      Watch “Chasing Coral” on /from Netflix.

  7. Radio Rich says:

    We are our own worst enemy. Mankind will destroy itself and most animals with it, very sad.

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  8. Anonymous says:

    In other news, Cayman puts turtle meat first on the menu as one of its ‘ Cultural Entitlements ‘.

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  9. Anonymous says:

    lord soon come…mankinds greed will be the end of him!

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  10. Anonymous says:

    More fake news, I’m just pleased I was timely with drinking bleach and sticking a UV bulb up my a**.

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  11. Anonymous says:

    Terrible news. The climate change deniers will probably scoff at this report too.

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    • Anonymous says:

      There is more going on than an eye can see.

      Marine life is drowning in pollution. Human activities such as overfishing, oil spillage, plastic dumping, agricultural and industrial wastes, amongst other harmful practices account for the death of trillions of marine lives every year.

      Plastics laying on land as litters or on landfills are washed by runoff into the nearest water body which eventually flows into larger water bodies. Some of the greatest dangers of plastic lie precisely in the harmful effects related to the toxicity of its degradation. At current rates plastic is expected to outweigh all the fish in the sea by 2050.

      One of the most misunderstood facts about marine plastic pollution is that it directly (‼️)contributes, through its slow degradation, to the increase of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and plays a catalytic role in global warming (‼️).

      Please do WHAT YOU CAN. Stop just whining and doing nothing.

      check The Ocean Cleanup (The One And Only non profit organization) site to see the scale of devastation.

      Dutch inventor Boyan Slat founded The Ocean Cleanup at the age of 18 in his hometown of Delft, the Netherlands.

      Offer your expertise, volunteer, donate, or just educate others. But the most important acton everyone must take is to demand a ban on disposable plastic.

      Projects:
      https://theoceancleanup.com/projects/

      Help clean
      https://theoceancleanup.com/help-clean/

      Careers
      https://theoceancleanup.com/careers/

      Cayman invites all kid of speakers al the time. Why in the world no one has ever invited Boyan Slat to Cayman.

      There is no expertise in the Caribbean when it come to marine life pollution. Invite the expert. Ask Questions. See what you can do and how you can help.

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    • Anonymous says:

      We’re bullshit deniers.

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