{"id":43469,"date":"2025-04-23T09:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/43469\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T09:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T09:26:08","slug":"84-of-the-worlds-coral-reefs-hit-by-worst-bleaching-event-on-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/43469\/","title":{"rendered":"84% of the world’s coral reefs hit by worst bleaching event on record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harmful bleaching of the world\u2019s coral has grown to include 84% of the ocean\u2019s reefs in the most intense event of its kind in recorded history, the International Coral Reef Initiative<\/a> announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, and has now surpassed bleaching from 2014-17 that hit some two-thirds of reefs, said the ICRI, a mix of more than 100 governments, non-governmental organizations and others. And it\u2019s not clear when the current crisis<\/a>, which began in 2023 and is blamed on warming oceans, will end.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may never see the heat stress that causes bleaching dropping below the threshold that triggers a global event,\u201d said Mark Eakin, executive secretary for the International Coral Reef Society and retired coral monitoring chief for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at something that\u2019s completely changing the face of our planet and the ability of our oceans to sustain lives and livelihoods,\u201d Eakin said.<\/p>\n

Last year was Earth\u2019s hottest year on record<\/a>, and much of that is going into oceans. The average annual sea surface temperature of oceans away from the poles was a record 20.87 degrees Celsius (69.57 degrees Fahrenheit). <\/p>\n

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\"Jonathan<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s deadly to corals, which are key to seafood production, tourism and protecting coastlines from erosion and storms. Coral reefs are sometimes dubbed \u201crainforests of the sea\u201d because they support high levels of biodiversity \u2014 approximately 25%<\/a> of all marine species can be found in, on and around coral reefs. <\/p>\n

Coral get their bright colors from the colorful algae that live inside them and are a food source for the corals. Prolonged warmth causes the algae to release toxic compounds, and the coral eject them. A stark white skeleton is left behind, and the weakened coral is at heightened risk of dying.<\/p>\n

The bleaching event has been so severe that NOAA\u2019s Coral Reef Watch program has had to add levels to its bleaching alert scale to account for the growing risk of coral death.<\/p>\n

Efforts are underway to conserve and restore coral<\/a>. One Dutch lab has worked with coral fragments, including some taken from off the coast of the Seychelles, to propagate them in a zoo<\/a> so that they might be used someday to repopulate wild coral reefs if needed. Other projects, including one off Florida, have worked to rescue corals endangered by high heat<\/a> and nurse them back to health before returning them to the ocean.<\/p>\n

But scientists say it\u2019s essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet, such as carbon dioxide and methane. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to protect coral reefs is to address the root cause of climate change. And that means reducing the human emissions that are mostly from burning of fossil fuels \u2026 everything else is looking more like a Band-Aid rather than a solution,\u201d Eakin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people really need to recognize what they\u2019re doing \u2026 inaction is the kiss of death for coral reefs,\u201d said Melanie McField, co-chair of the Caribbean Steering Committee for the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, a network of scientists that monitors reefs throughout the world. <\/p>\n

The group\u2019s update comes as President Donald Trump has moved aggressively in his second term to boost fossil fuels and roll back clean energy programs, which he says is necessary for economic growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a government right now that is working very hard to destroy all of these ecosystems … removing these protections is going to have devastating consequences,\u201d Eakin said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harmful bleaching of the world\u2019s coral has grown to include 84% of the ocean\u2019s reefs in the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3843],"tags":[24233,19430,8616,2311,24229,19481,32,728,4179,105,24231,24232,6096,24234,24228,24230,70,16,15,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-43469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-algae","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-climate-and-environment","11":"tag-climate-change","12":"tag-coral-reefs","13":"tag-corals","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-environment","16":"tag-general-news","17":"tag-health","18":"tag-mark-eakin","19":"tag-melanie-mcfield","20":"tag-national","21":"tag-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration","22":"tag-oceanography","23":"tag-oceans","24":"tag-science","25":"tag-uk","26":"tag-united-kingdom","27":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114386566070410409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}