#Status of Coral Reefs 2002 - International Coral Reef Action Network

Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2002
soon after by the major hurricane ‘Mitch’. This double impact destroyed many corals with
losses up to 75% in Belize. Overall there has been a 50% reduction in live coral cover in
Belize between 1997 and 1999, and cover has remained relatively stable at that level. Slow
recovery is in progress.
Eastern Caribbean
Like other parts of the wider Caribbean region, there was moderate to severe coral
bleaching in 1998, but generally there were low levels of mortality. At one site on
Barbados, approximately 20% of bleached corals did not survive, but there were
complicating pollution factors. Most reefs show signs of recovery from hurricanes, and
sediment and bleaching damage from the previous 10 years.
Southern Tropical America
There was predominantly slight coral bleaching and minimal mortality during the major
1997-98 El Niño throughout the region. The exception was in the North Bahia and the
Abrolhos region, Brazil where up to 80% of corals bleached, but nearly all the corals
recovered after 6 months. The major damage to these reefs from bleaching occurred in
the 1980s and early 90s. Recovery is slow as the reefs are under a wide range of
anthropogenic pressures.
CORAL BLEACHING IN 2000 TO 2002
The summary of data below from ReefBase, shows that the big bleaching period after 1998
was in 2002, and the majority of these events were reported from the Great Barrier Reef of
Australia (where there also are more people researching and monitoring coral reefs).
The major bleaching events since 1998 have been in the southwest to central Pacific in
early 2000 and again in early 2002. There was also some bleaching in other areas, but the
extent was much less than in 1998. So far there does not appear to be any pattern to these
latest bleaching events.
2000
Mass bleaching of many coral reefs in Fiji occurred during the La Niña event in 2000,
when water temperatures were above the normal maxima for 5 months. Temperatures
peaked at 30.0 – 30.5°C during March and April. When 19 reef locations were surveyed
during April – July over most parts of Fiji, 64% of colonies were bleached, except in
northern Vanua Levu. The most intense bleaching (80% of colonies) was on the southern
and east sides of the main islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, and also on Kadavu and
northern Lau group. An estimated 10 to 40% of corals had died when surveyed 4 four
months later. The only areas that appeared to escape bleaching were in the far north.
There was also similar, but less severe, coral bleaching at the same time in Samoa,
Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
2001
There was minor coral bleaching in Reunion during February 2001, but these events were
followed by relatively rapid recovery. There was also slight to moderate bleaching in the
southern islands of Japan in mid-2001, but mortality was slight and most corals recovered
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