[Coral-List] coral bleaching in the Kenting National Park, Taiwan

Allen Chen cac at gate.sinica.edu.tw
Sat Aug 4 01:28:10 EDT 2007


Dear Coral-list,

Starting from mid-late June, high SST (30C) is observed around the  
area of Southeast Taiwan, northern Philippine, and northern South  
China. Coral bleaching starts to develop in the mid July along the  
fringing reef at the Kenting National Park, Taiwan. Corals at shallow  
water (<5m) are bleaching intensively in the lat July. Over 45 hard  
coral species, mainly millepora and acroporids, are bleached at the  
first two surveys. Video transect surveys indicate over 70% of corals  
are affected. The most serious site is the fringing reef near the  
outlet of nuclear powerplant, where SST is measured at 35C degree at  
3 m in depth.

The coral bleaching can be ranked as the most serious bleaching event  
in the Kenting reef sincr the mass coral bleaching in 1998-1999.

Hope this information will be helpful to monitoring the potential  
bleaching in those reefs around West Pacific.

Cheers, Allen

RCBAS, Taiwan





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