Coral reefs across the world are faced with dire conditions. The rising global warming due to climate change is causing mass coral bleaching events.
One of the major sufferers is Australia’s renowned Lady Elliot Island, a popular destination for marine enthusiasts.
The US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has declared that a mass coral bleaching event has hit the world in 2024 and 53 countries are bearing the brunt.
This is the fourth such extreme weather event since the late 1990s.
Records suggest that the Great Barrier Reef is going through its worst summer.
“What is happening now in our oceans is like wildfires underwater,” said Kate Quigley, principal research scientist at Australia’s Minderoo Foundation.
Matter of life, livelihood, and sustainability
Bleaching is a scientific process which occurs when marine heatwaves induce extreme stress in corals. This stress causes corals to expel the symbiotic algae that give them their vibrant colors.
Subsequently, only the white skeletons of corals remain visible.
Notably, corals can recover from bleaching if temperatures normalize. However, an extended duration of heat can result in their demise.
“The temperatures got so warm, they’re off the charts … they never occurred before at this sort of level,” Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, the chief scientist at The Great Barrier Reef Foundation, told CNN while highlighting the severity of the current bleaching event.
It’s not just about coral reefs either. Such widespread bleaching events could lead to the death of about a quarter of all marine species that depend on corals for their survival.
Besides, it would also endanger the livelihood of approximately one billion people who rely on reef fish. Moreover, the loss of coral reefs makes coasts prone to severe floods and storms.
“Humanity is being threatened at a rate by which I’m not sure we really understand,” stated Hoegh-Guldberg.
A global problem
The coral bleaching event is not limited to Australia. The devastating marine heatwave has wreaked havoc in some of the most flourishing coral ecosystems in the Red Sea, Indonesia, the Seychelles, and many other regions.
“I am becoming increasingly concerned about the 2024 summer for the wider Caribbean and Florida,” said Derek Manzello, the coordinator for NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program.
For context, both the Caribbean and Florida suffered from mass coral destruction last year, and the loss is expected to intensify in 2024.
Global sea surface temperatures have been alarmingly high this year. It has stayed above 69.8 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) for over three consecutive months since January.
Fear and revival efforts
Scientists fear if the rate of warming is not controlled, global temperatures could rise by over 35 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) by 2025. This, according to them, could lead to the death of a staggering 99% of coral reefs.
“The trajectory that we’re on now is really quite scary,” expressed David Wachenfeld, research program director at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
AIMS is working on a research project focused on breeding heat-resistant corals. By selectively breeding corals that have shown tolerance to higher temperatures, scientists hope to create populations that can survive in a warmer future.
Another promising approach has been undertaken by Peter Harrison and his team at Southern Cross University in New South Wales.
They have been developing “coral IVF,” where scientists capture sperm and eggs from healthy corals, cultivate coral larvae in controlled environments, and then transplant them onto damaged reefs to accelerate recovery.
