Caribbean - coral bleaching (Caymans report)
-hh
Friday 25th September, 2009 Posted: 15:24 CIT (20:24 GMT)
"Following up on reports from the diving community as well as a
‘bleaching potential’ alert from the recently installed ICON weather
monitoring station in Little Cayman, DoE staff conducted a rapid
assessment of reefs on the north, west and south coasts of Grand
Cayman.
The scientific diving team found that nearly all corals in the shallow
reefs to about 30 ft showed signs of moderate to severe bleaching,
while approximately 80% of corals in the deeper reefs to 120 ft
exhibited the early signs of coral bleaching.
Bleaching appeared more intense on the north coast although the
reasons for this are not fully understood at this stage.
.... The last major bout of bleaching to impact the Cayman’s reefs
occurred in 1998 with significant mortality following. Minor bleaching
events have been recorded in the warmer summer months with increasing
frequency during the last decade. ... The DOE expects this current
bleaching episode to increase significantly in severity in the
following weeks as water temperatures remain above the threshold 29.5
degrees Celsius...However, past water temperature data collected since
1996 suggest that local waters start cooling down from mid–October,
which hopefully may bring some relief for the heat stressed corals."
29.5C = 85.1F ... that's cooking hot water for this late in September,
and around 2-4 degrees F than what my gages typically record.
-hh