Grand Cayman coral - white like snow

[ScubaBackpacker]

Dove Saba and St. Kitts at the end of October. Reefs on both islands looked like the patchy white corals in the videos in this thread. Temperatures were consistently 84-85 F. - even in the northeast Caribbean!!

 

[DiveProKoko]

A documentary named Chasing Coral is now streaming on Netflix. It documents in agonizing detail the mass bleaching and die-off of hard corals of the Great Barrier Reef in 2017. The corals turned lavender just before they died. Here's a news article that describes the phenomenon, which is believed to be a defensive attempt by the corals to protect themselves from the sun once the zooxanthellae have flown the coop. The article includes this image from a heavily-bleached reef in the Phillipines:

Although the movie was painful to watch, it is a good description of what is pretty sure to happen (is happening) over and over.

As to differentiating SCTLD-affected corals from bleached corals, acclaimed Bonaire reef-life photographer Ellen Muller has turned her photographic gifts to the real-time documenting of both bleaching and SCTLD. She has galleries at this link which show the progression of each. I understand one differentiation is that bleached corals still maintain the contours of their exoskeletons, while a coral murdered by SCTLD becomes blurry and eventually sloughs off its substrate, leaving the rock behind. (Should you visit, be sure to check out some of her glorious critter and coral photography.)

And then...... Is the Great Barrier Reef making a comeback?.

 

[DiveProKoko]

Hard to be optimistic about the state of the ocean when I read these reports.

Of course we should all be concerned to a point, and do what we can to preserve the ocean, but bleaching is common and normal. Most corals survive bleaching events, and even adapt to them, which is what we're seeing on huge reefs like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. That reef was in bad shape 7 or 8 years and now there is more coral present now than over the last 36 years. That does nothing to change what's happening in other places, but know that they will likely adapt and recover over time as well.

 

[Fastmarc]

Of course we should all be concerned to a point, and do what we can to preserve the ocean, but bleaching is common and normal. Most corals survive bleaching events, and even adapt to them, which is what we're seeing on huge reefs like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

This depends on what is being referred to as bleaching. If it is the corals response to a stressful situation by loosing the symbiotic algae that lives in it, zooxanthellae, then yes, recovery is very possible. However, the ones I encountered were without tissue... just the white skeleton remains. It's already dead.

 

[nldunn]

Thanks for the update - I figured that it would be the same (even worse due to the SCTLD that hit GCM) but still sad to hear it.

There is still hope that even the bright white stuff can recover if water temps drop soon - though not sure how long that window stays open before they actually die.

Here is another clip from the shallow reefs in Little Cayman showing the extent of bleaching this year - it’s crazy how bad it is as they said they had no significant bleaching at all last year.

Wow! That's a lot.
I'm surprised to not see a lot of fish. We snorkeled around our hotel and dove once last month in Cozumel and saw a lot more fish, even right off our hotel. Was that just not a place with a lot of fish hanging around?

 

[Joneill]

Wow! That's a lot.
I'm surprised to not see a lot of fish. We snorkeled around our hotel and dove once last month in Cozumel and saw a lot more fish, even right off our hotel. Was that just not a place with a lot of fish hanging around?

There were other parts that were definitely fishier - but no large schools and way more juveniles than adults.

 

[nldunn]

There were other parts that were definitely fishier - but no large schools and way more juveniles than adults.

That's interesting. Is that usual for the Caymans? Or because of reef issues? Does anyone know?
Thank you.