Worldwide Coral Bleaching Event May Finally Be Coming To An End

"An ongoing global coral bleaching event, one that’s affected more than 70 percent of tropical reefs worldwide, may finally be coming to a close. A new forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests that the high ocean temperatures that lead to bleaching are no longer widespread in the Indian Ocean, potentially signaling the end of what’s been a worldwide event for the past three years.

Still, “that’s not to say that all coral reefs are in the clear and none of them are experiencing bleaching anymore,” said Jennifer Koss, director of NOAA’s coral reef conservation program. There’s still ongoing heat stress in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, meaning corals in these parts of the world — including the long-suffering Great Barrier Reef, as well as reefs around the United States and the Caribbean — may not be out of the woods yet.

NOAA declared the global bleaching event — the third one on record — in 2015, when an unusually strong El Niño phase, coupled with the ongoing progression of climate change, caused elevated ocean temperatures throughout much of the world. Even then, bleaching already had been occurring in certain parts of the world for at least a year prior, according to Mark Eakin, coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program."

Chelsea Harvey reports for the Washington Post June 21, 2017.