[Coral-List] Decline of Red Sea coral reefs

[Douglas Fenner]

It seems we are now experiencing what was predicted for about 20-30 years
from now.  It would be great if this was just a one-shot deal and
temperatures would go back to what was normal a few years ago.  But last
year and this year may be the new normal.
       We may now be experiencing local extinctions of some coral species.
Certainly massive declines of some or many species.  We need to document
those.  More importantly, we need to be working to save those species that
have not yet gone locally extinct, and Austin has good ideas of how to do
that, it seems to me.
      Cheers, Doug

On Tue, Feb 27, 2024 at 10:16 AM David Blakeway via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Joseph’s assessment seems correct to me. There was a massive coral
> bleaching south of latitude 20 degrees (Al Lith) during the 2023 summer,
> correlating with water temperatures of 33-34 degrees. Many of the bleached
> corals have subsequently died and there has also been a near-complete loss
> of Millepora hydrozoans.
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