GCRMN

Clive Wilkinson c.wilkinson at aims.gov.au
Sun Jul 23 19:22:11 EDT 2000


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Coral.List subscribers

Please provide brief summaries of any information you have on coral reef
status after the 1997-98 mass coral bleaching that impacted in the Indian
Ocean, Southeast and East Asia, parts of the far west and far east Pacific
and areas of the Caribbean. Reports of no impacts are welcome.

The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network is writing the Status of Coral
Reefs of the World: 2000 report - a revision of the 1998 report. In the
1998 report, there was a summary of the bleaching soon after the event when
the full consequences were not known. Some commentators gave very
pessimistic reports about large areas of reefs that were dead and unlikely
to recover in the short-term. Recent results have confirmed some of these
sad assessments and reported greater coral reef losses, whereas other
reports are of coral recovery, many juveniles surviving, and significant
new coral recruitment in some areas. 

Thus a revision will probably show that the story is complex; a mix of
severe damage alongside encouraging recovery.  The target audience for the
2000 Status report is the senior decision maker, donor agencies and the
media: the text will be similar to the 1998 report (available as Chapter 1
in http://www.aims.gov.au/scr1998 or if you cannot download this, I will
send the chapter). 

This will NOT be a scientific paper, just a brief summary of the many
papers that have been or will be reported (many in Bali in October). The
GCRMN aims to release the full report in Bali and have copies free
available for all participants.

Please send brief summaries to: c.wilkinson at aims.gov.au (not to the
coral.list).

Thank you,

Clive Wilkinson
Coordinator
Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
c/o Australian Institute of Marine Science
Tel: +61 7 4772 4314; Fax: +61 7 4772 2808 



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