[Coral-List] Bleaching on Oahu, Hawaii

Chip Fletcher fletcher at soest.hawaii.edu
Tue Oct 7 14:28:46 EDT 2014


A very informal look at monthly mean temps for Hawaii (reported to me by a third party) suggests this has been the second warmest September since 1940.
Chip Fletcher - UHM


On Oct 6, 2014, at 6:39 PM, Cindy Hunter wrote:

> A coral bleaching event is developing on Oahu, Hawaii, as reported to the
> State’s Eyes of the Reef website on September 21st, 2014. This is the first
> major coral bleaching event in the Main Hawaiian Islands since 1996 and is
> impacting 60-90% of all dominant coral species in near-shore shallow waters
> of windward Oahu (primarily, in order of apparent sensitivity: Pocillopora
> damicornis, Pocillopora meandrina, Montipora capitata, Montipora spp.,
> Porites evermanni, P. lobata, and P. compressa). Additional reports of
> coral bleaching from around the State include the Northwestern Hawaiian
> Islands, as well as other sites on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island (Hawaii).
> Seawater temperatures in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu (NOAA station Moku O Loe) peaked
> at 30.2° on 9-20-14, and have cooled a bit but still hover around 29°, 2
> degrees above the seasonal average for these waters.  Calm sea conditions
> (=high light penetration) prevail and predictions of continued warm waters
> are forecasted for the next 4-6 weeks.
> 
> -- 
> Cynthia Hunter, Ph. D.
> Associate Professor, Department of Biology
> 2450 Campus Road, Dean 108
> University of Hawaii
> Honolulu, HI 96822
> (808) 956-4748
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