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coral bleaching
'Graveyard of Corals': Bleaching Led to Great Barrier Reef's Worst Die-Off on Record
"We will ultimately get to a tipping point where coral cover can't bounce back," warned one researcher. "We have to mitigate the root causes of the problem and reduce emissions and stabilize temperatures."
Aug 06, 2025
After last year's climate-fueled bleaching in Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef, large swaths of the GBR suffered the worst coral die-off since records began, a government report revealed Wednesday, prompting renewed calls for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as reef conservation and restoration.
The GBR "experienced unprecedented levels of heat stress, which caused the most spatially extensive and severe bleaching recorded to date," the Australian Institute of Marine Science's (AIMS) annual report states.
AIMS studied the health of 124 coral reefs between August 2024 and May 2025 and found that northern and southern branches of the approximately 1,400-mile (2,300 km) GBR suffered the "largest annual decline in coral cover" ever recorded since monitoring began nearly 40 years ago.
Data collected last year from aerial surveys showed that 75% of the GBR had been bleached amid record heat driven by the worsening climate emergency. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned in March 2024 that the bleaching would likely be the worst the world had ever seen.
The new report confirmed that "the 2024 event had the largest spatial footprint ever recorded on the GBR, with high to extreme bleaching prevalence observed across all three regions" of the GBR.
According to AIMS:
In 2025, hard coral cover declined substantially across the GBR, although considerable coral cover remains in all three regions. Regional declines ranged between 14% and 30% compared to 2024 levels, with some individual reefs experiencing coral declines of up to 70.8%. These declines are primarily attributed to coral mortality from the 2024 mass coral bleaching event, compounded by the cumulative impacts of two cyclones in December 2023 and January 2024, freshwater inundation, and some crown-of-thorns starfish activity.
In 2025, 48% of surveyed reefs underwent a decline in percentage coral cover, 42% showed no net change, and only 10% had an increase. Reefs with stable or increasing coral cover were predominantly located in the central GBR.
Scientists described the resulting seascape as a "graveyard of corals."
AIMS research lead Mike Emslie told Agence France-Presse that the "number one cause" of GBR coral decline "is climate change."
"There is no doubt about that," Emslie added.
The problem is by no means limited to the GBR. A mass global bleaching event has devastated more than 80% of the world's coral reefs over the past two years, affecting 82 countries and territories.
Prior to the current die-off, the last major GBR bleaching event occurred in 2014-17, when scientists said nearly one-third of its coral died and approximately 15% of all reefs worldwide experienced major coral deaths.
"These impacts we are seeing are serious and substantial and the bleaching events are coming closer and closer together," Emslie said in a separate interview with The Guardian.
"We will ultimately get to a tipping point where coral cover can't bounce back because disturbances come so quickly that there's no time left for recovery," he warned. "We have to mitigate the root causes of the problem and reduce emissions and stabilize temperatures."
AIMS called for greater global efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions fueling planetary heating, "continued good local management," and more interventions "to help corals adapt and recover."
Larissa Waters, leader of the Australian Greens and a federal senator representing Queensland, on Monday urged the governing Labor Party to "follow the science, set 2035 targets at net-zero, stop new coal and gas, or risk losing our reef, its immense biodiversity, and the 60,000 jobs it sustains."
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Want to Protect Coral Reefs? Recognize the Rights of Nature
The escalating coral bleaching crisis must serve as a call to action, not just for environmental protection, but for a transformative shift in how we view and relate to Nature.
Nov 12, 2024
Amid the most widespread coral reef bleaching ever recorded, we face a crucial question: How can we implement effective, holistic protections for coral reefs?
For over 30 years, governments and civil society have gathered at United Nations Climate Change Conferences, yet the results have often been superficial and ineffective. Despite scientists’ urgent warnings about the devastating effects of warming beyond 1.5°C, proposed mitigation targets remain unmet, and accountability is absent due to non-binding agreements. Climate policies have largely centered on humanity’s needs in the name of development and economic growth, neglecting the equally vital futures of other species. This oversight has led to repeated failures for Nature, contributing to today’s largest recorded coral bleaching event across 74 countries. Now, scientists warn that even 1.5°C may be too much for coral and ocean health.
News headlines keep warning us of a point of no return, calling attention to fires in the Amazon and yet another massive coral bleaching event. This may seem distant from our daily lives, but the truth is that the problem is closer than we realize—and solutions lie within each of us. Recognizing the inherent Rights of Nature is one such solution.
What Are the Rights of Nature?
Recognizing and respecting Nature’s rights holds the potential to change humanity's relationship with our planet. The Rights of Nature movement traces its roots to Christopher Stone’s 1972 book Should Trees Have Standing? Since then, countless scholars, scientists, and activists have joined the call to recognize Nature’s inherent rights and our responsibility to all other beings with whom we are interconnected.
The Rights of Nature is now a powerful global movement aiming to transform human consciousness, redesign unsustainable economic and social systems, and provide a framework for living in harmony with Nature. Drawing on the wisdom of ancient and Indigenous cultures and leveraging modern law, the movement seeks a balanced relationship between humankind and all forms of life, honoring the natural equilibrium of our biosphere.
Recognizing the rights of corals ensures a holistic approach to ocean protection, safeguarding these crucial ecosystems so they can continue to exist, persist, and regenerate their life-sustaining cycles.
Recognizing the inherent Rights of Nature to protect the future of coral reefs provides a real and holistic solution not only to corals but to the well-being of all species that live among them. The escalating coral bleaching crisis must serve as a call to action, not just for environmental protection, but for a transformative shift in how we view and relate to Nature. By recognizing coral reefs as living entities with inherent rights through the Rights of Nature framework, we move beyond traditional conservation approaches. This holistic lens not only restores and protects coral ecosystems but also elevates the voices and rights of Indigenous communities, whose knowledge and stewardship are vital to these ecosystems’ survival. Granting legal rights to reefs ensures their protection from exploitation and destruction while fostering a deeper respect for the interconnectedness of all life. It’s a crucial step toward securing the future of coral reefs and the communities that depend on them.
Have Coral Reefs Been Granted Rights Around the World?
The Rights of Nature movement allows for a flexible approach, enabling creative implementation tailored to different environments and legal systems. In Ecuador, these rights were embedded in the Constitution in 2008, while Panama established them as National Law (Law 287) in 2022. Various initiatives and campaigns for Ocean Rights, encompassing diverse marine ecosystems, are underway—a majority of them featured in the EcoJurisprudence Monitor.
Just this past September, the Rights of Nature movement had a big win led by the Leatherback Project and local entities when Panama adopted the Saboga Wildlife Refuge under Resolution N° DM-0361-2024, protecting critical sea turtle habitat and recognizing corals’ rights to regenerate their vital cycles. The resolution proposes to “promote the protection of the Rights of Nature, enshrined in Law 287 of 2022, ensuring that the ecosystems within the Saboga Wildlife Refuge are treated as subjects of rights, with the aim of preserving their integrity, regeneration, and ecological balance.” Additionally, the law recognizes the rights of corals to regenerate under this specific clause: “Promote the protection, conservation, and restoration of coral reefs and seagrass meadows, recognizing their importance as critical habitats for marine biodiversity and as fundamental components for the ecological health of the protected area and its resilience to climate change.” The protection of the Saboga Wildlife Refuge will require Panama’s action even beyond the borders of the reserve, as upholding coral and sea turtles' rights will not depend only on what happens inside protected areas.
Who Can Benefit From Corals Having Their Rights Recognized?
Listing coral reefs’ contributions to a healthy ocean could go on endlessly. Thriving coral reefs support thriving ocean life, provide essential nurseries for marine species, and offer reliable food sources. Recognizing the rights of corals ensures a holistic approach to ocean protection, safeguarding these crucial ecosystems so they can continue to exist, persist, and regenerate their life-sustaining cycles. As scientists warn, rising ocean temperatures are damaging coral reefs, making urgent action essential. Oceans know no borders, and governments must implement bold climate mitigation measures to halt and reverse ecosystem degradation. Recognizing Nature’s rights offers an effective and bold solution to achieving this goal. In summary, all benefit from coral reefs having their rights recognized.
How the Rights of Nature Are Being Used Around the World
From Antarctica to the Amazon rainforest to rivers in Bangladesh, the Rights of Nature movement is working to holistically protect vital ecosystems through principles rooted in ancient wisdom and the undoubted connection between humans and Nature. We need to restore our connection to Mother Earth and act boldly for the implementation of real, effective solutions to the polycrises we are facing today. The Rights of Nature movement offers hope for future generations, both human and non-human.
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Highest Ocean Heat in 400 Years Poses 'Existential Threat' to Great Barrier Reef
"In the absence of rapid, coordinated, and ambitious global action to combat climate change, we will likely be witness to the demise of one of Earth's great natural wonders," the authors of a study in Science wrote.
Aug 08, 2024
The Great Barrier Reef recently experienced the highest ocean temperatures in at least four centuries and faces an "existential threat" due to repeated mass coral bleaching episodes, a study published Wednesday in Science found.
The network of coral reefs off of Australia—the world's largest living structure—has faced five of the six hottest three-month periods of average surface temperature ever recorded just since 2016, each of which was accompanied by devastating coral bleaching.
Ocean temperatures around the reef reached a record-breaking extreme from January to March this year, with the three-month mean temperature 1.73°C higher than the pre-1900 average, according to the study, authored by researchers based in Australia.
The study includes climate modeling that attributes the temperatures to fossil fuel-driven carbon emissions, and concludes that urgent climate action is needed.
"This attribution, together with the recent ocean temperature extremes, post-1900 warming trend, and observed mass coral bleaching, shows that the existential threat to the Great Barrier Reef ecosystem from anthropogenic climate change is now realized," the study says.
"In the absence of rapid, coordinated, and ambitious global action to combat climate change, we will likely be witness to the demise of one of Earth's great natural wonders," the authors also wrote.
The Great Barrier Reef is under critical pressure, with warming sea temperatures and mass coral bleaching events threatening to destroy the remarkable ecology, biodiversity, and beauty of the world’s largest coral reef, according to research in @nature. https://t.co/67bXgmfTEn
— Robin Hicks (@RobinHicks_) August 8, 2024
The researchers estimated the surface temperatures for 1618-1899 by using a reconstruction method based on drilling into coral skeletons and analyzing the chemical makeup. For the period from 1900 to 1995, they used both the reconstruction method and measurements by modern instruments, and for the last 30 years they used instrumental data.
They found that temperatures were relatively stable until 1900 but have climbed steadily since, especially since 1960.
The trend has culminated in a series of bleaching events, in which stressed corals expel the microscopic algae in their tissues and become transparent or white. Without the helpful algae, which live inside them symbiotically, corals are at risk of disease and death.
In interviews with journalists, the study authors spoke about the severity of the threat to the Great Barrier Reef and the urgent need for climate action.
"The heat extremes are occurring too often for those corals to effectively adapt and evolve," Ben Henley, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Melbourne and lead author of the study, told The New York Times. "If we don't divert from our current course, our generation will likely witness the demise of one of Earth's great natural wonders, the Great Barrier Reef."
Henley said he snorkeled with his father on the Great Barrier Reef as a child.
"You can't even take in the diversity," he said. "It's a kaleidoscope of color, it's absolutely spectacular."
He said he worries that his own 2-year-old daughter may not be able to enjoy the same experience.
"In her childhood years the reef is likely to see immense destruction," he said.
He called for strong global action so that his daughter and members of her generation could "marvel at the reef in their lifetimes."
Helen McGregor, a scientist at the University of Wollongong and study co-author, told the BBC the new research "could send a huge signal to the world about how grave the problem is."
"We know what we need to do," she added. "We have international agreements in place [to limit global temperature rise]."
Scientists not involved in the study agreed about the importance of the research, not just for the Great Barrier Reef but for coral reefs more generally.
"It's a stunningly important summary of the history of the world's largest reef system," Stephen Palumbi, a marine biologist at Stanford University, told the Times. "The paper lays out the danger that corals all around the world face from this heat."
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False Climate Solution of Geoengineering Could Cause Heatwaves Thousands of Miles Away
"We need more regional geoengineering modeling studies like this work to characterize these unintended side effects before they have a chance to play out in the real world," said the study's lead author.
Jun 21, 2024
A study published Friday found that a cloud engineering technique designed to cool parts of the western United States could inadvertently stoke heatwaves from North America to Europe, underscoring why many scientists reject geoengineering as a false climate solution.
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, concludes that marine cloud brightening (MCB)—"a geoengineering proposal to cool atmospheric temperatures and reduce climate change impacts"—in the "remote mid-latitudes or proximate subtropics" of the northern Pacific Ocean—would decrease "the relative risk of dangerous summer heat exposure by 55% and 16%, respectively."
However, the researchers found that regions including Africa's Sahel, central North America, Europe, and northeastern Asia would "experience exacerbated heat stress and hotter summers with MCB than would otherwise occur under global warming."
Additionally, the study shows that MCB would be less effective over time and could "even increase heat stress in the western United States" and beyond by mid-century.
University of California San Diego researcher Jessica Wan, who led the study, told The Guardian that MCB "can be very effective for the U.S. West Coast if done now, but it may be ineffective there in the future and could cause heatwaves in Europe."
The study's authors said the paper's findings are especially troubling given the dearth of international MCB regulation.
"There is really no solar geoengineering governance right now. That is scary," said Wan. "Science and policy need to be developed together. We don't want to be in a situation where one region is forced to do geoengineering to combat what another part of the world has done to respond to droughts and heatwaves."
As New Scientist reported:
The MCB experiments that have taken place so far in Australia and California haven't been of a sufficiently large scale to cause detectable climate effects, but they suggest that regional geoengineering could be closer to reality than previously thought, says Wan. "We need more regional geoengineering modeling studies like this work to characterize these unintended side effects before they have a chance to play out in the real world."
In Australia, researchers are experimenting with geoengineering techniques in an effort to cool the Great Barrier Reef and decelerate its bleaching. In California, scientists from the University of Washington sprayed sea salt flecks over a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the San Francisco Bay in hushed testing that was halted by the city of Alameda last month over safety concerns.
"We strongly welcome Alameda City Council's unanimous decision to say no to the first open-air marine cloud brightening experiment in the U.S.," Mary Church of the Center for International Environmental Law said after the halt. "Key concerns raised by council members focused on lack of sufficient information, notice, and transparency. The rejection rightfully reflects the gravity of what's at stake for both local and global communities."
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Some Journalists Get It: Fossil Fuel Giants Are Directly to Blame for Coral Bleaching
These few coral-focused pieces offer hope that some outlets might be improving their climate reporting practices to include accountability.
May 25, 2024
Record levels of heat in the ocean are causing once-colorful coral reefs around the world to bleach a ghostly white. In April, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced the planet’s fourth mass coral-bleaching event on record—the second in the last decade.
While they might look like plants, corals are actually invertebrate animals related to jellyfish. They get their vibrant colors from tiny algae that live on them and provide them with food. But when ocean temperatures become too hot, corals get stressed and expel the algae, losing their food source and color. Starving coral can recover if their environments improve, but the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that even with the Paris agreement’s allotted warming of 1.5°C over preindustrial levels, 70–90% of the world’s coral reefs will still die.
In order to give the public the most complete understanding of what’s going on—and how we can fix it—reporting on coral bleaching should not only link the phenomenon to climate change, but link climate change to its main culprit: the fossil fuel industry.
Because coral reefs provide such vibrant ecosystems for sea life, mass coral death will impact economies and food security for humans as well. By protecting coasts, sustaining fisheries, generating tourism, and creating jobs, it is estimated that coral reefs provide ecosystem services worth trillions of dollars each year (MIT Science Policy Review, 8/20/20; GCRMN, 10/5/21).
In the past year alone, we’ve seen staggering and unprecedented ocean temperatures amid widespread heatwaves. Last summer, water temperatures of more than 100°F were recorded off the coast of Florida (ABC, 7/25/23). Scientists say the El Niño weather phenomenon, solar activity, and a massive underwater volcanic eruption have played a role in recent supercharged ocean temperatures, but the biggest cause of this coral crisis is undisputed: climate change. The IPCC reports that it’s “virtually certain” ocean temperatures have risen unabated since 1970, absorbing more than 90% of excess heat from the climate system. We also know that the burning of fossil fuels changes the climate more than any other human activity does.
Therefore, in order to give the public the most complete understanding of what’s going on—and how we can fix it—reporting on coral bleaching should not only link the phenomenon to climate change, but link climate change to its main culprit: the fossil fuel industry. While much reporting deserves credit for clearly making this connection, some reports from major outlets were still behind, implying the climate crisis might be some sort of act of God, rather than something humans have caused—and have the power to mitigate.
Good News About Bad News
Coral bleaching is bad news, but I’d like to take a rare moment to highlight the good news, too: A lot of reporting on this crisis was thorough, setting a solid example of how the increasing number of climate change-related phenomena should be reported on.
Vox (4/26/24) dedicated a whole piece to climate change’s effects on coral, making that fossil fuel connection. Senior environmental reporter Benji Jones wrote:
Ultimately, the only real solution is reducing carbon emissions. Period. Pretty much every marine scientist I’ve talked to agrees. “Without international cooperation to break our dependence on fossil fuels, coral bleaching events are only going to continue to increase in severity and frequency,” [NOAA marine scientist Derek] Manzello said.
The New York Times (4/15/24) made the fossil fuel connection, too, in an article by Catrin Einhorn: “Despite decades of warnings from scientists and pledges from leaders, nations are burning more fossil fuels than ever and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.”
NPR dedicated an episode of “All Things Considered” (4/17/24) to scientists’ work to breed heat-tolerant corals and algae, in hopes that they can help restore reefs. The piece, by Lauren Sommer and Ryan Kellman, outlined this work’s promise—and its limitations. Heat-tolerant algae may not share as many nutrients with the coral, potentially causing the coral to grow more slowly and reproduce later. Regulators will need to assess whether these lab-grown corals are safe for wild populations and their ecosystems as a whole. Logistically, the sheer amount of heat-tolerant coral needed to replace affected reefs is vast, and it’s only a temporary solution.
“It’s not our ‘get out of jail free’ card,” said Australian coral biologist Kate Quigley:
Maybe that gets us to 2030, 2050, for a very few number of species that we can work with. If we don’t have an ocean to put them back in that’s healthy, no amount of incredible technology or money is worth it.
The episode ended with an acknowledgment that these scientific mitigations are meant only to buy time while humans work to halt climate change, which will require “cutting heat-trapping emissions from the largest source—burning fossil fuels—and switching to alternative energy sources like solar and wind.”
“All Things Considered’s” coverage of the scientists’ work was impactful because it took time to explain that creating these heat-tolerant corals was an important mitigation, but that the ultimate solution is to cut fossil fuels. Without the latter, the former would be in vain.
Capable of Accountability
As a media critic for an organization that’s been at this since 1986, to me it’s heartening when news outlets’ work actually improves. It’s definitely not yet time to pop the champagne—there’s still a chronic lack of clear reporting linking climate disasters to fossil fuels, as FAIR has noted in coverage of last year’s wildfires (7/18/23, 8/25/23), climate protests (9/29/23), the potential breakdown of a crucial Atlantic current (7/31/23), overstating the potential of new carbon-capture technology (1/4/24), and more. But these few coral-focused pieces offer hope that some outlets might be improving their climate reporting practices to include accountability. At the very least, it proves they are certainly capable.
Aside from the effects of the climate crisis becoming harder and harder to ignore each year, there is a commendable movement to train journalists on how best to report on climate through a number of initiatives and organizations. There’s a lot of work to do, but these stories indicate progress since Big Media was applauding Big Oil’s efforts to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 (Extra!, 3–4/90) and giving platforms to “scientists” on Big Oil’s payroll who asserted climate change was not occurring (Extra!, 11–12/04, 5–6/07).
The New Denial
Climate denial today is more nefarious. Due to the unanimity and widespread knowledge of the scientific consensus, respectable outlets can no longer parrot views that the Earth isn’t warming. What they can do is bury or gloss over information on its primary cause, who profits off of it, and what needs to be done to prevent it from getting much worse.
In a piece on the potential of artificial reefs to mitigate this crisis that linked coral bleaching to climate change, CNN’s Michelle Cohan (5/9/24) waited until the very last paragraph to mention the need to “curb climate-warming carbon emissions.” There’s nothing untrue about that statement, but it doesn’t tell you where those emissions come from, and leaves open the interpretation that “curbing” emissions can come from carbon capture and storage—a strategy that is largely industry greenwashing (FAIR.org, 1/4/24).
Despite likely short-form word limits, a solutions-oriented piece like this does a disservice to readers—and the scientists working on saving corals—by giving such an incomplete sketch of the necessary long-term change. It would benefit from a clear explanation that a) we need to phase out fossil fuels and b) alternative energy sources already exist, are reliable, and are more affordable than fossil fuels already. It’s not arduous or wordy to do so. “All Things Considered” did most of it in one sentence.
The feeling of alarm is justified, but journalists should remind readers that the coral bleaching crisis—and climate change as a whole—are not totally uncontrollable acts of nature.
An ABC piece (4/15/24) by Leah Sarnoff and Daniel Manzo covered the coral-bleaching event, but only mentioned climate change in passing toward the end. Otherwise, “warming oceans” were just depicted as something that happened, with no clear connection or cause.
In an article expressing the dire condition of the reefs, The Washington Post’s Rachel Pannett (4/18/24) likewise made the link to climate change only once: “Climate change is the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef, and coral reefs globally,” said Roger Beeden, the chief scientist of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. There was another quote from a research director with the Australian nonprofit Climate Council, who merely noted that the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef is “a disaster at our doorstep.”
It’s important to express the dire condition the reefs are in, and the devastating risks it poses to ocean and human life. But by only mentioning “climate change” in passing, and not discussing its causes, it comes across as a natural but unfortunate phenomenon. Not highlighting its causes means not highlighting its solutions, either. The result is a potentially paralyzing doomsday narrative that is more likely to dampen than galvanize necessary climate action—especially against fossil fuels.
‘Heat Stress’
Another Washington Post piece (4/15/24), by Amudalat Ajasa, mentioned the “heat stress” on corals, but not even climate change, let alone the culpability of fossil fuels. This piece quoted NOAA’s Manzello, saying that this global event should be a wake-up call, but didn’t elaborate on what that wake-up call would be for. Wake up to do what? This piece didn’t explain.
The piece also took a grave tone, describing the ghastly reefs off the coast of Florida, Australia, and the Caribbean island of Bonaire. It quoted Francesca Virdis, a chief operating officer at Reef Renewal Bonaire: “It’s hard to find a silver lining or a positive note with everything happening.”
The article explained the role of El Niño—a naturally occurring climate pattern that warms areas of the Pacific every 2 to 7 years—and the hope that it will soon let up and give way to La Niña, its cooler counterpart, but did not explain that the phenomenon plays a smaller role than ongoing, human-caused warming. The aforementioned Vox piece also discussed the role of El Niño, but was sure to specify that reefs have been collapsing long before this current crisis.
The feeling of alarm is justified, but journalists should remind readers that the coral bleaching crisis—and climate change as a whole—are not totally uncontrollable acts of nature. We know what is to blame. While it may be too late to avoid breaching the 1.5°C limit even if we cut emissions tomorrow, the sooner we cease burning fossil fuels, the more catastrophic impacts we’ll avoid.
The message is urgent and dire, but there’s plenty that humans—especially those in power—can do, and there’s plenty journalists can do to make the public aware.
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Coral Bleaching 'Off the Charts' in Atlantic as NOAA Warns Ocean Going 'Crazy Haywire'
"We had to add additional bleaching alert levels to appropriately categorize just how hot it was," said a coral reefs expert at the agency.
May 17, 2024
The phrase "off the charts" is no exaggeration in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's latest warning about a global coral bleaching event that scientists have linked to rising ocean temperatures and heat stress.
Derek Manzello, coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Program, told reporters Thursday that about 60.5% of the world's coral reefs are now experiencing heat stress severe enough to cause bleaching, which can make the reefs more vulnerable to disease and harm the biodiversity they support.
Manzello said at the press briefing that after observing the first months of the coral bleaching event, which began in early 2023, NOAA changed its existing bleaching alert system because conditions were so abnormally warm in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea.
The agency's new bleaching alert system categorizes heat stress for coral reefs on a scale of 1-5, with Alert Level 5 representing ocean heat that could kill "approximately 80% or more of corals on a particular reef," Manzello said.
"We had to add additional bleaching alert levels to appropriately categorize just how hot it was," he said, with Level 5 "analogous to a Category 5 hurricane or cyclone."
"I hate that I have to keep using that word 'unprecedented.'... But, again, we are seeing unprecedented patterns again this year."
The world's oceans, Manzello, said, are going "crazy haywire."
In the Caribbean this year, heat stress off the coasts of Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Colombia are now at levels that in previous years weren't seen until the summer months.
"I hate that I have to keep using that word 'unprecedented,'" Manzello told The New York Times. "But, again, we are seeing unprecedented patterns again this year."
The bleaching that took place last year resulted in coral mortality of at least 50% and as high as 93% in reefs off the coast of Huatulco, Mexico, according to a team of Mexican scientists.
In the Atlantic, fossil fuel-driven planetary heating has been exacerbated by El Niño—the natural phenomenon that causes warmer-than-normal ocean surface temperatures—and has caused the "most unprecedented and extreme" bleaching-level heat stress observed in the past year.
Manzello said 99.7% of reef areas in the Atlantic have experienced heat stress that could cause bleaching.
"The Atlantic Ocean has been off the charts," he said.
Scientists have recorded four global bleaching events since 1998 and have linked all of them to warmer ocean temperatures. Since 1950, the world has lost half of its coral reefs, according to a 2021 study.
Along with serving marine life, a quarter of which rely on coral reefs at some point in their life cycles, reefs also protect coasts from storms, whose growing severity in recent years scientists have also linked to planetary heating.
The current bleaching event has affected reefs off the coasts of at least 62 countries and territories.
Scientists earlier this year confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year in human history and the warmest year on record for the world's oceans, which absorb more than 90% of excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions.
"I am very worried about the state of the world's coral reefs," Manzello said. "We are seeing [ocean temperatures] play out right now that are very extreme in nature."
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'Should Be a Global Wake-Up Call': Coral Reefs Suffer Fourth Mass Bleaching Event
"The announcement of the fourth global bleaching event is an urgent call to do two things: reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work together to prioritize resilient coral reefs for conservation."
Apr 16, 2024
Scientists said Monday that the world's coral reefs are facing a fourth global bleaching event as the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency pushes ocean temperatures to record highs, imperiling the critical underwater ecosystems that sustain thousands of species.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)—which NOAA co-chairs—said they documented coral bleaching in the northern and southern hemispheres of every major ocean basin on Earth between February 2023 and April of this year. It could be the worst global bleaching event on record.
"Since early 2023, mass bleaching of coral reefs has been confirmed throughout the tropics including Florida in the U.S.; the Caribbean; Brazil; the eastern Tropical Pacific (including Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia); Australia's Great Barrier Reef; large areas of the South Pacific (including Fiji, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Samoas, and French Polynesia); the Red Sea (including the Gulf of Aqaba); the Persian Gulf; and the Gulf of Aden," the organizations said in a statement.
"NOAA has received confirmation of widespread bleaching across other parts of the Indian Ocean basin as well, including in Tanzania, Kenya, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Tromelin, Mayotte, and off the western coast of Indonesia," they added.
"More than half the reefs on the planet have basically experienced bleaching-level heat stress in the last year."
Derek Manzello, coordinator of NOAA's Coral Reef Watch, said that "as the world's oceans continue to warm, coral bleaching is becoming more frequent."
Excessively warm water causes corals to expel algae from their tissues, causing the organisms to turn white. While they can recover, such bleaching is evidence that corals are under significant stress and at risk of death.
The latest global bleaching event is the second in the last 10 years and "should be a global wake-up call," Manzello told The Washington Post.
"More than half the reefs on the planet have basically experienced bleaching-level heat stress in the last year," said Manzello.
NOAA and ICRI's statement comes as scientists around the world are voicing growing alarm over high ocean temperatures. Research released last month showed that global ocean surface temperatures had broken records every day of the year up to that point, underscoring the need to aggressively rein in fossil fuel production and use.
"Temperatures are off the charts," Emily Darling, director of coral reefs at the Wildlife Conservation Society, said Monday. "While many corals are suffering from extreme heat stress and bleaching, some locations and species show different types of natural resilience. Finding and conserving these priority coral reefs are critical to any global strategy to safeguard the planet's oceans and blue economies."
"The announcement of the fourth global bleaching event is an urgent call to do two things: reduce greenhouse gas emissions and work together to prioritize resilient coral reefs for conservation," Darling added.
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NOAA Warns World's Coral on Verge of 'Worst Bleaching Event in History of the Planet'
"It's looking like the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere is probably going to bleach this year," one scientist said.
Mar 05, 2024
Driven by sustained climate-fueled oceanic heating, the planet is on the brink of another mass coral bleaching event that marine biologists warn could kill large swaths of tropical reefs including significant areas of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Scientists are sounding the alarm following months of record ocean temperatures exacerbated by the planetary emergency and the El Niño climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean.
"It's looking like the entirety of the Southern Hemisphere is probably going to bleach this year," Derek Manzello of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch told Reuters. "We are literally sitting on the cusp of the worst bleaching event in the history of the planet."
As NOAA explains:
When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.
In 2005, the U.S. lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event. The warm waters centered around the northern Antilles near the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico expanded southward. Comparison of satellite data from the previous 20 years confirmed that thermal stress from the 2005 event was greater than the previous 20 years combined.
Following the planet's hottest summer on record last year, the Caribbean suffered its worst recorded bleaching event. The last worldwide bleaching occurred in 2014-17, when scientists say approximately 15% of all reefs experienced major coral deaths. Nearly a third of the Great Barrier Reef's coral perished during the bleaching.
In the Southern Hemisphere, where summer is ending and ocean temperatures are at or near their annual peaks, there is "basically bleaching all over the place," according to Manzello.
Matthew England, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia who studies ocean currents, recently told The New York Times that "the sea ice around the Antarctic is just not growing" and "the temperature's just going off the charts."
"It's like an omen of the future," he added.
It's a similar story in the North Atlantic, which "has been record-breakingly warm for almost a year now," University of Miami hurricane expert Brian McNoldy told the Times. "It's just astonishing. Like, it doesn't seem real."
A 2018 report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that global heating of 1.5°C is likely to result in the loss of 70-90% the planet's coral reefs over the coming decades.
Current emissions-based forecasts have Earth on track for at least 1.5°C of warming, which researchers say is likely to trigger five climate tipping points: melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, mass die-off of warm-water coral reefs, thawing of Arctic permafrost, and collapse of the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre circulation.
The European Environment Agency's long-term forecasts for 2071-2100 predict worldwide oceanic heating of 0.5°C-3.8°C, depending on future greenhouse gas emission scenarios.
Scientists say the best way to avert worst-case outcomes for both coral reefs and the climate is to swiftly transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Reducing land-based pollution and overfishing are also critical to reef preservation.
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The Climate Crisis Demands Collective and Individual Leadership and Responsibility
Not everyone can lower their carbon footprint, but every person can do one thing within a community context of support.
Aug 27, 2023
As temperatures continued to rise this summer, with dire predictions that the next year will be hotter than the one that preceded it, communities around the globe have added climate adaptation and building resilient infrastructure to their list of priorities. Grim statistics greet us as we read news stories, ranging from the worldwide crash of the amphibian population to the decline of pollinators, so necessary for global food production. Recently, the increased temperatures in the southern Florida Keys have caused coral reefs to bleach and struggle for survival. In many cases, these corals will die, eliminating entire ecosystems. The recent deadly wildfires in Maui and tropical storm in Mexico and Southern California remind us that the climate crisis, in addition to human decisions, continues to have dire effects.
These stark reminders reveal that we are now on the runaway climate train. Even if we stopped emitting all carbon tomorrow (impossible of course), the snowball effect will continue for decades.
Interestingly, the climate crisis may be one of the few environmental issues for which we have the technical knowledge to implement significant mitigation and minimize deleterious effects. Like the depletion of the ozone layer, solutions are possible. Over time, we have reduced and virtually eliminated ozone depleting chemicals in the atmosphere after the signing of the 1987 ozone treaty, also known as the Montreal Protocol. The annual Antarctic ozone hole has been slowly shrinking for the past two decades. We did, indeed, collectively stop a runaway train.
If we all do a little, we will benefit ourselves and our descendants. They deserve no less from us.
In this technological age, there is plenty of discourse about what could mitigate the climate crisis: cloud seeding, emissions reductions, lowering our meat intake, changing agricultural practices, the list goes on. We also need to consider what each of us can do in our personal and professional spheres to transition both human societies and the species of the Earth that depend on our good sense. The Montreal Protocol required the support of the business sector as well as government; so too will our success in addressing the climate crisis.
As President of Fielding Graduate University, I work with faculty, students, and others residing in 28 states and other countries on ecological justice and other issues. The increasing temperatures conversation is part of a broader commitment to protecting our climate through action. Universities, as well as individuals, can play four important roles.
First, distributed learning models can allow students and faculty to learn together in non-campus settings. Fielding was among the early inventors of this idea, which is so simple yet revolutionary. Rather than have people quit their jobs and move their families to earn advanced degrees, our founders envisioned that our students, with faculty, could learn in their own communities. It fits perfectly within a new economy in which we can utilize virtual solutions for advanced learning and professional achievement. Distributed learning is intrinsically more energy efficient and less carbon emitting. Many other institutions are already operating along these lines.
Second, fostering professional careers in the social sciences is crucial in addressing the climate crisis. The skills needed for large-scale change include personal resilience and adaptability, as well as the qualities of being able to hold complexity and paradox within us. More fundamentally, we will not be able to take constructive action if we are all anxious and depressed. In general, there is a growing mental health crisis in our country. Universities’ success in graduating clinicians is an important way that we can help human beings go through the expected global economic and social transformation. They are equipped with knowledge about how to cope with ecological grief and loss and can respond to change in healthy ways.
Third, universities that are focused on undergraduates and the STEM professions can build programs that specifically prepare generations of students to hone their talents to face the coming age with personal courage and significant expertise. For example, since Fielding focuses on adult learners and mid-career professionals, one contribution was the creation of a center with other university partners to specifically foster participants in STEM leadership to advance their STEM careers. Fielding’s Center for the Advancement of STEM Learning (CASL) develops leadership skills among those already tasked with leading institutions into the future. Developing mentoring, building skills, and increasing psychological strength are all important qualities for the transformation ahead.
The fourth role is about personal choices. We are all in different circumstances. Not everyone can lower their carbon footprint. Not everyone can get off the carbon train by buying an electric vehicle, becoming a vegan, declining to have children, or deciding not to fly again. However, every person can do one thing within a community context of support. Each of us must ask ourselves, what action can one take for the benefit of the whole without passing a judgment?
Scientists are now saying that “excessive heat will get more democratic” in the coming years as fragile systems fail, places that never had heatwaves will suffer, and people become more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
It is simple, really. One, if you have leadership responsibility in your community organization, think about what can be done with your unique sphere, as my university has done. Second, be intentional about choices and support others in theirs. If we all do a little, we will benefit ourselves and our descendants. They deserve no less from us. The pressing question all of us can ask is: So, what are you going to do about it?
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Trying to Rescue Florida’s Coral Reef From Devastating Ocean Heat
This year, the Florida Keys reached an alert level 2, indicating extreme risk of bleaching, about six weeks earlier than normal.
Aug 13, 2023
Armed with scrub brushes, young scuba divers took to the waters of Florida’s Alligator Reef in late July to try to help corals struggling to survive 2023’s extraordinary marine heatwave. They carefully scraped away harmful algae and predators impinging on staghorn fragments, under the supervision and training of interns from Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education, or I.CARE.
Normally, I.CARE’s volunteer divers would be transplanting corals to waters off the Florida Keys this time of year, as part of a national effort to restore the Florida Reef. But this year, everything is going in reverse.
As water temperatures spiked in the Florida Keys, scientists from universities, coral reef restoration groups, and government agencies launched a heroic effort to save the corals. Divers have been in the water every day, collecting thousands of corals from ocean nurseries along the Florida Keys reef tract and moving them to cooler water and into giant tanks on land.
Marine scientist Ken Nedimyer and his team at Reef Renewal USA began moving an entire coral tree nursery from shallow waters off Tavernier to an area 60 feet deep and 2°F (1.1°C) cooler. Even there, temperatures were running about 85 to 86°F (30°C).
Marine scientist Ken Nedimyer collects still-healthy elkhorn coral fragments for moving. The tree structure keeps the corals free of harmful algae. (Photo: Reef Renewal USA)
Their efforts are part of an emergency response on a scale never before seen in Florida.
The Florida Reef—a nearly 350-mile arc along the Florida Keys that is crucial to fish habitat, coastal storm protection, and the local economy—began experiencing record-hot ocean temperatures in June 2023, weeks earlier than expected. The continuing heat has triggered widespread coral bleaching.
A bleached mound of coral at the Cheeca Rocks monitoring site in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary that had been previously tagged shows the coral skeleton. (Photo: NOAA AOML)
While corals can recover from mass bleaching events like this, long periods of high heat can leave them weak and vulnerable to disease that can ultimately kill them.
That’s what scientists and volunteers have been scrambling to avoid.
The heartbeat of the reef
The Florida Reef has struggled for years under the pressure of overfishing, disease, storms, and global warming that have decimated its live corals.
A massive coral restoration effort—the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Mission: Iconic Reef—has been underway since 2019 to restore the reef with transplanted corals, particularly those most resilient to the rising temperatures. But even the hardiest coral transplants are now at risk.
Reef-building corals are the foundation species of shallow tropical waters due to their unique symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae in their tissues.
During the day, these algae photosynthesize, producing both food and oxygen for the coral animal. At night, coral polyps feed on plankton, providing nutrients for their algae. The result of this symbiotic relationship is the coral’s ability to build a calcium carbonate skeleton and reefs that support nearly 25% of all marine life.
Unfortunately, corals are very temperature sensitive, and the extreme ocean heat off South Florida, with some reef areas reaching temperatures in the 90s, has put them under extraordinary stress.
A boulder brain coral, Colpophyllia natans, before and after bleaching during the 2014 marine heat wave in the Florida Keys. (Photos: Michael Childress and Kylie Smith)
When corals get too hot, they expel their symbiotic algae. The corals appear white—bleached—because their carbonate skeleton shows through their clear tissue that lack any colorful algal cells.
Corals can recover new algal symbionts if water conditions return to normal within a few weeks. However, the increase in global temperatures due to the effects of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities is causing longer and more frequent periods of coral bleaching worldwide, leading to concerns for the future of coral reefs.
A MASH unit for corals
This year, the Florida Keys reached an alert level 2, indicating extreme risk of bleaching, about six weeks earlier than normal.
The early warnings and forecasts from NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch Network gave scientists time to begin preparing labs and equipment, track the locations and intensity of the growing marine heat, and, importantly, recruit volunteers.
This year’s maximum sea surface temperature (top chart) and degree heating weeks (lower chart), a measure of accumulated heat stress, are the highest since record-keeping began. (Image: Adapted from NOAA)
At the Keys Marine Laboratory, scientists and trained volunteers have dropped off thousands of coral fragments collected from heat-threatened offshore nurseries. Director Cindy Lewis described the lab’s giant tanks as looking like “a MASH unit for corals.”
Volunteers there and at other labs across Florida will hand-feed the tiny creatures to keep them alive until the Florida waters cool again and they can be returned to the ocean and eventually transplanted onto the reef.
Degree heating weeks is a measure of accumulated heat stress over the previous 12 weeks. At 4-degree Celsius-weeks (7.2 Fahrenheit-weeks), corals experience stress that can lead to bleaching. Above 8 C-weeks (14.4 F-weeks), they are likely to experience bleaching. (Photo: NOAA Coral Reef Watch)
Protecting corals still in the ocean
I.CARE launched another type of emergency response.
I.CARE co-founder Kylie Smith, a coral reef ecologist and a former student of mine in marine sciences, discovered a few years ago that coral transplants with large amounts of fleshy algae around them were more likely to bleach during times of elevated temperature. Removing that algae may give corals a better chance of survival.
Youth members of Diving With a Purpose attend a training session and coral maintenance dive with the Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education team in Islamorada, Florida. (Photo: I.CARE)
Smith’s group typically works with local dive operators to train recreational divers to assist in transplanting and maintaining coral fragments in an effort to restore the reefs of Islamorada. In summer 2023, I.CARE has been training volunteers, like the young divers from Diving with a Purpose, to remove algae and coral predators, such as coral-eating snails and fireworms, to help boost the corals’ chances of survival.
Monitoring for corals at risk
To help spot corals in trouble, volunteer divers are also being trained as reef observers through Mote Marine Lab’s BleachWatch program.
Scuba divers have long been attracted to the reefs of the Florida Keys for their beauty and accessibility. The lab is training them to recognize bleached, diseased, and dead corals of different species and then use an online portal to submit bleach reports across the entire Florida Reef.
The more eyes on the reef, the more accurate the maps showing the areas of greatest bleaching concern.
Ian Enochs, a research ecologist and lead of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Lab Coral Program, found that every coral in the Cheeca Rocks area had bleached by August 1, 2023. (Photo: NOAA AOM)
Rebuilding the reef
While the marine heatwave in the Keys will inevitably kill some corals, many more will survive.
Through careful analysis of the species, genotypes, and reef locations experiencing bleaching, scientists and practitioners are learning valuable information as they work to protect and rebuild a more resilient coral reef for the future.
That is what gives hope to Smith, Lewis, Nedimyer, and hundreds of others who believe this coral reef is worth saving. Volunteers are crucial to the effort, whether they’re helping with coral reef maintenance, reporting bleaching, or raising the awareness of what is at stake if humanity fails to stop warming the planet.
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