[Coral-List] Potential for Western Pacific Bleaching

[Mark Eakin - NOAA Federal]

Fortunately, temperatures have cooled off around Guam, CNMI, and the
Hawaiian archipelago after setting new records of thermal stress and high
bleaching.

However, our Seasonal Bleaching Outlook has been indicating that the
bleaching seen earlier this year in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati is
likely to return:

http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/bleachingoutlook_cfs/outlook_cfs_pacific.php
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__coralreefwatch.noaa.gov_satellite_bleachingoutlook-5Fcfs_outlook-5Fcfs.php&d=AAIF-g&c=7MSSWy9Bs2yocjNQzurxOQ&r=mxnjGj1-K1cYCH-JH1g-7Q&m=cgI_1lo6Rw6WvRUH0dQnLR4UIl6Cm8e1iuEiAeakli8&s=Nt1fb0U2oaJLgqh3WvPEylL1j_3fpX-ILhRkjf6okgY&e=>

The areas most likely to be hit are centered first on Nauru and bounded by
the offshore islands of Papua New Guinea on the southwest and Tarawa and
nearly islands of Kiribati on the northeast.

This thermal stress is then expected to move south early in 2015, spanning
from the Solomon Islands on the west, through Tuvalu, and to Tokelau on the
east.

If this pattern continues, thermal stress is likely to accumulate along the
Great Barrier Reef in January and February, and perhaps around Fiji and the
Samoas after that.

Please send all bleaching observations to coralreefwatch at noaa.gov and/or
the NOAA/ReefBase collaborative online bleaching report  form:
http://www.reefbase.org/contribute/bleachingreport.aspx. Your bleaching
observations (including observations of no bleaching) are greatly
appreciated. Should you have any questions or feedback on our Coral Reef
Watch products, please send an e-mail to coralreefwatch at noaa.gov.

We encourage you to watch our new 5-km products for the Caribbean at:

http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/bleaching5km/index.php

We plan to have our new 5-km Regional Gauges operating for all of these
areas by the end of 2014. Watch
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/regions/index.php for expansion to your area..


Cheers,

Mark


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

C. Mark Eakin, Ph.D.

Coordinator, NOAA Coral Reef Watch

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Center for Satellite Applications and Research

Satellite Oceanography & Climate Division

e-mail: mark.eakin at noaa.gov

url: coralreefwatch.noaa.gov


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