Latest news with #coralbleaching
Forbes
4 days ago
- Health
- Forbes
World Reef Awareness Day 2025: Bringing Corals Back To Life
Coral reefs in the Maldives getty On June 1st, the world celebrated World Reef Awareness Day 2025 under the urgent theme: 'Bringing Corals Back to Life.' This day highlights the indispensable role coral reefs play in sustaining marine life and coastal communities and the existential threats they now face. According to the Coral Reef Alliance, coral reefs, which cover less than 1% of the ocean floor, support approximately 25% of all marine species. Beyond biodiversity, they provide food, livelihoods, and coastal protection for over one billion people globally. However as time progresses, what is notable is that these ecosystems are collapsing. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ongoing 2023–2025 global coral bleaching event is the most extensive on record. To further give light to the situation, the International Coral Reef Initiative indicated that, bleaching-level heat stress has now impacted 84% of the world's coral reefs, with damage recorded across 82 countries, territories, and economies. For comparison, only 21% of reefs experienced similar stress during the first global bleaching event in 1998, rising to 37% in 2010, and 68% during the prolonged third event between 2014 and 2017. Scientists have already described the current fourth global bleaching event as 'unprecedented' as early as May 2024. In fact, the widely-used Bleaching Alert System had to expand its scale, adding new Levels 3 through 5 to capture the escalating risk. Previously, Level 2 indicated potential mortality for heat-sensitive corals; Level 5 now signals a risk where more than 80% of all corals on a reef could die from sustained bleaching conditions. The World Wildlife Fund article also warns that if current warming trends continue, up to 90% of coral reefs could disappear by 2050. In response, restoration strategies are gaining traction, for example, as reported in Time Magazine, Mars Inc. is making waves in reef rehabilitation. the company has planted over 1.3 million corals in the past 15 years. Leading these efforts is David Smith, the company's chief marine scientist, who ensures that each coral restoration project is grounded in rigorous scientific research. Mars Inc's "reef stars" hexagonal steel structures are seeded with sand and coral fragments has helped Indonesia's Hope Reef rebound from just 2% coral cover to over 70%, with fish populations surging by 260%. Meanwhile, researchers are developing heat-resistant hybrid corals better suited for warming seas, according to National Geographic. Technological solutions are also advancing, according to NOAA, scientists are testing rubble stabilization for the first time in Hawaii's coastal waters as a method of coral restoration, and early results are promising. The technique involves anchoring loose and broken reef fragments to the seafloor, providing a stable foundation for coral regrowth. This process has already helped revive disintegrated reef systems, offering them a renewed chance at recovery. World Reef Awareness Day is more than symbolic as it is a call to urgent action. Without intervention, the planet risks losing one of its most vital ecosystems as a result it is essential to restore them, not only an environmental imperative but essential for future food security, biodiversity, and climate resilience.
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Clownfish shrink their bodies to survive ocean heat waves
To survive warming oceans, clownfish cope by shrinking in size. Scientists observed that some of the orange-striped fish shrank their bodies during a heat wave off the coast of Papa New Guinea. Fish that slimmed were more likely to survive. Heat waves are becoming more common and intense underwater due to climate change. Warmer water temperatures can bleach sea anemones that clownfish call home, forcing them to adapt to stay alive. Scientists monitored and measured 134 colorful clownfish in Kimbe Bay during an intense heat wave in 2023 that's still bleaching corals worldwide. They found that 101 clownfish decreased in length on one or more occasions from heat stress. 'We were really shocked at first when we saw that they were shrinking at all,' said study author Morgan Bennett-Smith with Boston University. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Though scientists don't yet know how clownfish shrink, one idea is that they could be reabsorbing their own bone matter. It's possible the smaller stature may help the clownfish save energy during a stressful scorch since smaller fish need less food. Certain clownfish breeding pairs also synced their shrink to boost their survival odds. The females adjusted their size to stay bigger than their partners, keeping the female-dominated social hierarchy intact, researchers said. Other animals also decrease in size to beat the heat. Marine iguanas get smaller during El Niño events that usher warm waters into the Galapagos. But this coping strategy hadn't yet been spotted in coral reef fish until now. 'This is another tool in the toolbox that fish are going to use to deal with a changing world,' said Simon Thorrold, an ocean ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved with the new study. The tactic helps clownfish weather heat waves in the short-term, but it's not yet clear how the fish will fare if they have to keep it up in the years to come, Thorrold said. Researchers found the shrinking was temporary. Clownfish possessed the ability to 'catch up' and grow back when their environment got less stressful, showing how living things are staying flexible to keep up with a warming world, said study author Melissa Versteeg with Newcastle University. 'These natural systems really are under stress, but there's a capacity for incredible resilience,' Versteeg said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
Clownfish shrink their bodies to survive ocean heat waves
NEW YORK (AP) — To survive warming oceans, clownfish cope by shrinking in size. Scientists observed that some of the orange-striped fish shrank their bodies during a heat wave off the coast of Papa New Guinea. Fish that slimmed were more likely to survive. Heat waves are becoming more common and intense underwater due to climate change. Warmer water temperatures can bleach sea anemones that clownfish call home, forcing them to adapt to stay alive. Scientists monitored and measured 134 colorful clownfish in Kimbe Bay during an intense heat wave in 2023 that's still bleaching corals worldwide. They found that 101 clownfish decreased in length on one or more occasions from heat stress. 'We were really shocked at first when we saw that they were shrinking at all,' said study author Morgan Bennett-Smith with Boston University. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Though scientists don't yet know how clownfish shrink, one idea is that they could be reabsorbing their own bone matter. It's possible the smaller stature may help the clownfish save energy during a stressful scorch since smaller fish need less food. Certain clownfish breeding pairs also synced their shrink to boost their survival odds. The females adjusted their size to stay bigger than their partners, keeping the female-dominated social hierarchy intact, researchers said. Other animals also decrease in size to beat the heat. Marine iguanas get smaller during El Niño events that usher warm waters into the Galapagos. But this coping strategy hadn't yet been spotted in coral reef fish until now. 'This is another tool in the toolbox that fish are going to use to deal with a changing world,' said Simon Thorrold, an ocean ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved with the new study. The tactic helps clownfish weather heat waves in the short-term, but it's not yet clear how the fish will fare if they have to keep it up in the years to come, Thorrold said. Researchers found the shrinking was temporary. Clownfish possessed the ability to 'catch up' and grow back when their environment got less stressful, showing how living things are staying flexible to keep up with a warming world, said study author Melissa Versteeg with Newcastle University. 'These natural systems really are under stress, but there's a capacity for incredible resilience,' Versteeg said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Science
- CBS News
Under Hawaii's warming blue ocean, many once-colorful coral reefs are bleached white
Ecologist warns sudden coral bleaching is "like pulling the plug on a TV" Jarrod Taylor has been diving in the waters off the coast of Honolulu for 20 years, and he has witnessed a seismic shift happening not just in Hawaii but across the world's oceans. Coral reefs — which are essential for maintaining marine life and biodiversity, as well as helping protect coastal communities from storms — are losing their colors and transforming in the warming waters fueled by changing climate. "It's sad and disheartening," Taylor said. "It was really colorful probably two years ago. And now it's all bleached white." According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 84% of coral reefs are now under heat stress that can cause bleaching. When the ocean warms, the algae give corals their vibrant hues are pushed out, leaving them as white skeletons. Marine scientist Greg Asner leads Allen Coral Atlas, a program that maps the world's coral bleaching with the goal of conservation. "There are some heat waves where you and I might swim around for a while and actually start sweating in the water. Corals and other species that live on the seafloor are much more sensitive than we are," said Asner, who's also the director of the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science at Arizona State University. On both land and sea, 2024 was the earth's hottest year on record, according to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. With the average ocean surface temperature hitting 70 degrees, the rising heat is speeding up coral deaths. It used to take years to kill a reef. Now, it can take weeks — sometimes days. Compared to Hawaii, the decline of coral reefs is worse in the Great Barrier Reef and the Galapagos Islands, according to Asner. The problem is most severe in the Caribbean and the state of Florida. "It's heart wrenching to see these huge areas, expanses of amazing biological diversity, just go. It's like pulling the plug on a TV, and it's just static, just goes blank ... And the recovery is extraordinarily slow to zero," Asner said. Without healthy and thriving reefs, aquatic creatures lose their habitats and coastlines lose a natural seawall that can protect communities from storms — preventing billions of dollars in flood damage, according to the NOAA. While the situation is dire, not all hope is lost. There's a push to educate tourists to use sunscreens that don't contain chemicals that are harmful to corals, and solutions like underwater nurseries are allowing corals to repair and regrow, but it's going to take time. "The next gen, the folks that I'm training now, they could be the ones who could see the recovery phase. If we get fossil fuels under control," Asner said.
The Independent
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
David Attenborough Ocean directors reveal what 99-year-old broadcasting legend is really like to work with
Sir David Attenborough has released what he has described as one of the most important films of his career — Ocean. Ocean features filming firsts, including the biggest mass coral bleaching event in history and showing the realities of industrial bottom trawling fishing. Directors Kevin Scholey and Colin Butfield reflect on what it's like to work with the broadcasting legend and predict what his lasting legacy will be as Sir David enters his hundredth year. Ocean With David Attenborough is releasing as a global cinema event from Thursday, 8 May.
