Written by Gloria Dicky and Alison Witzars
The scientific authorities said on Wednesday that (more than four fifths of coral reef areas in the world were affected by the destructive mass whitening that stimulates temperatures in the standard oceans, and turned into many coral reefs that were of ghost colors.
Bleaching is bleached due to abnormal cases at the water temperature that causes coral reefs to expel the colored algae that live in their tissues. Without helping algae connecting nutrients to coral reefs, coral reefs cannot survive.
The fourth mass whitening event in the world, which scientists announced one year ago, showed a few signs of slowdown, according to the International Coral Reefs Initiative and data from the National Oceanic and Calf Administration and the American Co -Calfation that follows the health of coral reefs. Instead, it has grown to be the most prevalent ever, with 84 % of the coral reef areas – from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean – which is exposed to severe heat stress for a period that expects to cause bleaching as of March 2025.
Last year was the most recorded ever, and was the first to reach more than 1.5 degrees Celsius more warmer than industrial times, as it contributed to unprecedented ocean temperatures and the heavier number of the previous marine temperatures records around the world.
“The size and extent of thermal stress is horrific,” said Melanie McField, a marine scientist working in the Caribbean. “Some of the coral reefs that have survived so far from the great heat stress and we believed that they were somewhat flexible, surrendered to partial deaths in 2024.”
“Whitening is always strange – as if silent snowfall has descended on coral reefs,” she added.
The previous events in 1998, 2010 and 2014-17 witnessed 21 %, 37 % and 68 % of coral reefs that were subjected to heat pressure at the bleaching level, respectively.
Marine biologists warned at early last year that coral reefs in the world were about to be a comprehensive bleach after months of standard oceans fueled by the change of climate caused by human and climate style in Nino, which results in unusually warm surrounding temperatures along the equality and in the Pacific Ocean.
In December 2024, the La Nina style gave a weak, which usually brought cooler surrounding temperatures, the hope that coral reefs would recover, but it lasted only three months.
Instead, bleaching continued to spread, said Noa Coral Reef Derek Manzello. Suleiman and Papua New Guinea are recently added to the list of 82 countries and regions that record thermal stress at the whitening level in their waters.
It will take years for scientists to understand the global range of the death of coral reefs, but they say they have already noticed widespread deaths in parts of the Caribbean and Red Sea region, and along the great coral barrier in Australia.
(Participated in the reports of Gloria Dicky and Ali Wathir; editing Alexandra Hudson)
