2024-07-06 16:51:02
The frequency of mass bleaching of corals off Bali is devastating, said Indonesian conservationist Nyoman Sugiarto, who has been working on their conservation for 16 years, Reuters reported.
Ninety percent of the coral grown by Sugiarto on reefs near his village in Bondalem, on Bali’s north coast, bleached last December.
“Everything was white. We were shocked and, of course, it also had a negative effect on the corals we planted. Not only the natural ones,” 51-year-old Sugiarto told Reuters, BTA broadcasts.
When Sugiarto started coral conservation projects in 2008, he was told that corals could sustain the live algae that give them their color for 10 to 20 years. However, the coral reefs off Bondalem have bleached faster. According to him, this is due to higher sea temperatures caused by climate change.
Coral bleaching occurs when they shed the colored algae living in their tissues. Without the algae, corals become pale and vulnerable to starvation, disease or death.
In April, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that more than 54 percent of the world’s ocean reefs are under bleaching-level heat stress, the fourth global bleaching event in three decades.
Indonesia has about 5.1 million hectares of coral reefs – 18 percent of the world’s total, according to data from the country’s Ministry of Tourism.
Coral bleaching in Bali at the end of 2023 was mainly caused by rising water temperatures due to the El Niño phenomenon, said Maarten Weli, marine conservation adviser at the Coral Triangle Centre.
Indonesia experienced its worst dry season since 2019 last year due to the El Niño phenomenon.
Although Indonesia’s corals are more resilient and recover faster, Marten says that won’t be enough to withstand rising ocean temperatures.