"The mass bleaching of coral reefs around the world since February 2023 is now the most extensive on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told Reuters this week.
A staggering 77% of the world’s coral reef areas – from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Indian oceans – have so far been subjected to bleaching-level heat stress, according to satellite data, as climate change fuels record and near-record ocean temperatures across the world.
"This event is still increasing in spatial extent and we’ve broken the previous record by more than 11% in about half the amount of time,” said NOAA Coral Reef Watch coordinator Derek Manzello. “This could potentially have serious ramifications for the ultimate response of these reefs to these bleaching events.”
The NOAA coral reef authority declared the global bleaching event in April 2024, making it the fourth of its kind since 1998. The previous record from the 2014 to 2017 mass bleaching affected just below 66 percent of the world’s reef area."
Alison Withers and Gloria Dickie report for Reuters October 17, 2024.
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