Status of Caribbean coral reefs after bleaching and hurricanes in 2005

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Executive SummaryIt May 2005, analysis of satellite images by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) of USA showed that the waters of the Southern Caribbean were warming faster thannormal and people in the region were asked to look out for coral bleaching. The warmingwas evident as a ‘HotSpot’ of warmer water which was likely to stress corals in the NorthernCaribbean (see p. 38).As the surface waters continued to heat up, it became obvious that this was going to be aparticularly stressful year for the coral reefs of the Caribbean. NOAA issued a regular series ofinformation bulletins, warnings and alerts on the warming waters and developing hurricanes,thereby stimulating coral reef managers and scientists to examine their coral reefs for signsof bleaching. Throughout August, September and October it became clear in reports from theWider Caribbean that 2005 was probably the most severe coral bleaching and mortality eventever recorded. The HotSpot warming reached its peak in October and then dissipated as winterapproached and solar heating shifted to the southern hemisphere. However, monitoring ofthe corals continued into 2006 to assess either recovery from bleaching, or incidences of coraldisease or mortality. There were also preliminary assessments of the social and economic costsof this HotSpot phenomenon.The 2005 bleaching event has followed a long, slow decline in the status of Caribbean coral reefsover thousands of years; especially during the last 50 years. Many Caribbean reefs have lost upto 80% of their coral cover during this time. The causes included climate related factors priorto 2005, but most of the coral losses were due to direct human impacts such as over-fishing,excess sediment input, increases in nutrients from agriculture and domestic sewage, anddirect damage to reefs during development. These impacts are all symptomatic of increasinghuman populations and their use of the reefs, such that many of these occur simultaneously.The damage symptoms are often seen as particularly low fish populations, outbreaks of coraldiseases, or corals struggling to grow in poor quality, dirty waters or smothered by algae. Thusmany of the reefs of the Wider Caribbean were already stressed and in decline when the majorclimate change events of 2005 struck.The islands and mainland countries of the Caribbean are highly dependent on coral reefresources, thus there is an urgent need for appropriate management responses as seatemperatures are predicted to increase further in future. The World Resources Institute Reefs@Risk analysis estimated that Caribbean coral reefs in 2000 provided between US$3,100 millionto $4,600 million each year from fisheries, dive tourism, and shoreline protection services;however 64% of these same reefs were threatened by human activities, especially in the EasternCaribbean, most of the Southern Caribbean, Greater Antilles, Florida Keys, Yucatan, and thenearshore parts of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. All these areas suffered severebleaching damage in 2005. The R@R analysis indicated that coral loss could cost the regionUS$140 million to $420 million annually.This book compiles data and observations of coral bleaching and mortality from more than70 coral reef workers and volunteer divers to summarize the current status of reefs in theWider Caribbean; but more importantly the book seeks to provide information to coral reefmanagers and decision makers to aid in the search for solutions to arrest the coral reef declinein a region that contains 10.3% of the world’s reefs. These compiled reports also illustrate thevalue of early predictions of possible bleaching; ‘products’ developed by NOAA from archived7
Status of Caribbean Coral Reefs after Bleaching and Hurricanes in 2005and current satellite images, complemented by direct measures like temperature loggers andbuoys, were used to warn of the impending bleaching threat. The products were distributedwidely through e-mail alerts and various internet sites, alerting natural resource managers ofthe potential for damage to their coral reefs. Hundreds of scientists and resource managers inthe Caribbean used these alerts and products in 2005 to allocate large amounts of their limitedfinancial and logistic resources to monitor what turned out to be a record-breaking bleachingevent. The information yielded from this monitoring will be vital to future management effortsto protect coral reefs in light of today’s rapidly changing climate.Th e 2005 Co r a l Bl e a c h i n g Ev e n t a n d Hu r r i ca n e sThese following HotSpot images and the other ‘Degree Heating Week’ images on the front coverand inside title page are typical of the information that was widely dispersed throughout theCaribbean and elsewhere via the Internet through the coral reef information network ‘Coral-List’. This generated considerable correspondence, and senior NOAA scientists have offeredtheir personal insight of what happened in their offices as the sequence of events developed.These are detailed in Chapter 4.This 1st figure illustrates a typical HotSpot image (explanation on p. 38) that was generated fromsatellite data and distributed throughout the Wider Caribbean. The HotSpot on 16 July 2005 showswaters 1ºC to 2ºC above the normal summer maximum as seen as ‘warm’ yellow and orange colorsover central America as well as a large but less warm region in the central Atlantic Ocean; as this wasbeing reported there was evidence of bleaching reported in Belize.The first signs of bleaching were in Brazil in March during the southern summer. However,this did not correspond to a major HotSpot; it was more likely due to a local calm weather andheating event. The first coral bleaching in the Caribbean was reported in early June on theIslas del Rosario in northwest Colombia where waters had warmed to 30 o C. These waters thencooled and the corals recovered. By late June, surface waters exceeded 30 o C around Puerto8
Page 1 and 2: Stat u s o fCa r i b b e a nCo r a
Page 3 and 4: Dedication: This book is dedicated
Page 5 and 6: Status of Caribbean Coral Reefs aft
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Page 25 and 26: Status of Coral Reefs in the Caribb
Page 35 and 36: 3. Hu r r i ca n e s a n d t h e i
Page 37 and 38: Hurricanes and their Effect on Cora
Page 39 and 40: Hurricanes and their Effect on Cora
Page 41 and 42: 4. Th e 2005 Bl e a c h i n g Ev e
Page 43 and 44: The 2005 Bleaching Event: Coral-Lis
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Status of the Mesoamerican Reef aft
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6. Co r a l Reefs o f t h e U.S. Ca
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Coral Reefs of the U.S. Caribbean19
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Coral Reefs of the U.S. CaribbeanMe
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Coral Reefs of the U.S. Caribbeanwe
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7. Th e Effects o f Co r a l Bl e a
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The Effects of Coral Bleaching in t
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10. Ma n ag i n g f o r Ma s s Co r
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Managing for Mass Coral Bleaching:
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Status of Caribbean coral reefs after bleaching and hurricanes in 2005

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