NEWS
IFRECOR Release Summary Note on the State of Coral Bleaching in the French Territories of the Indian Ocean

Date

TOPIC

Tags

January, 2024 – The Initiative Française Pour Les Récifs Coralliens (IFRECOR) release a coral reef bleaching report for the French Territories in the Indian Ocean

The French Coral Reef Initiative (IFRECOR) has released a comprehensive report on the impacts of recent coral bleaching events across the Frecnh Territories in Indian Ocean. The findings reveal the significant stress experience by the island’s coral reefs due to prolonged heatwaves and rising sea surface temperatures.

Key Highlights

  • Heat Anomalies and Bleaching: Prolonged heatwaves have triggered widespread coral bleaching, with mortality rates particularly high among heat-sensitive species.
  • Ecosystem and Community Impacts: Coral loss is affecting biodiversity and threatening the livelihoods of coastal communities that depend on reefs for fisheries and tourism.
  • Need for Action: The report underscores the urgency of enhanced monitoring, restoration projects, and climate change mitigation to protect these ecosystems.

 

The report is available in French and can be downloaded at Coral Bleaching in the Indian Ocean Islands.

Image credited to Ocean Image Bank

ICRI and NOAA confirmed the Fourth Global Bleaching Event on 15th April 2024. The current climate model predictions for coral reefs suggest that bleaching impacts will increase in frequency and magnitude as the oceans warm due to human-induced global warming caused by climate change.

Previous global mass bleaching occurred in 1998, 2010 and from 2014-2017. The Global Coral Reef Monitoring network (GCRMN), and operational network of ICRI, demonstrated in 2021, through its ‘Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020‘ report, that large scale coral bleaching events are the greatest disturbance to the world’s coral reefs with the 1998 bleaching event alone killing 8% of the world’s coral, and the subsequent disturbance events resulted in a loss of 14% of the world’s coral from 2009 – 2018. And with the possibility of a fourth mass bleaching event in 2024, concern is abound amongst the coral community, but this bleaching event is not a surprise, and preparations for management, monitoring and recovery are in motion.

It is critical to remember that bleached corals are not dead corals, and they can recover if ocean temperatures return to normal. Solutions are being deployed to help build the resilience of coral reef, so they can better withstand the impacts of climate change into the future.

More

Articles