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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/coral-bleaching/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Coral Bleaching</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/coral-bleaching/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Coral reef experts press on, with climate looming over international conference</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/coral-reef-experts-press-on-with-climate-looming-over-international-conference/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/coral-reef-experts-press-on-with-climate-looming-over-international-conference/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 18:34:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31142917/8-conference-attendee-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325038</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and New Zealand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AUCKLAND — Lest anyone think scientific conferences must be staid affairs, the International Coral Reefs Symposium closed with inspiration from none other than U.S. rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, known for revolutionary lyrics in the 1990s: “It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AUCKLAND — Lest anyone think scientific conferences must be staid affairs, the International Coral Reefs Symposium closed with inspiration from none other than U.S. rap metal band Rage Against the Machine, known for revolutionary lyrics in the 1990s: “It has to start somewhere. It has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now? All hell can&#8217;t stop us now!” Christian Voolstra, a professor at the University of Konstanz in Germany and president of the International Coral Reef Society (ICRS), which organizes the conference, choked up as he read those lyrics at the closing ceremony, as did this reporter. Reflections on how conference participants could address the many threats to coral reefs, including seas that are becoming hotter and more acidic due to climate change, had punctuated the program of more narrowly focused presentations on research and conservation practice during the conference, held July 19-24 in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. This 16th iteration of the conference, which takes place every four years, drew more than 2,100 participants from more than 90 countries, including coral reef scientists, conservationists, policymakers and community leaders. (Previous ICRS conferences held in locations nearer to Global North research hubs drew even more people.) Recurring themes in conference discussions included how much to focus on climate mitigation, how to characterize and communicate the current condition of coral reefs, and how to empower Indigenous communities and integrate their knowledge systems. A reef off Komodo Island in Indonesia. Image courtesy of Greg Asner/divephoto.org. Prioritizing climate?&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/coral-reef-experts-press-on-with-climate-looming-over-international-conference/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/coral-reef-experts-press-on-with-climate-looming-over-international-conference/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>If Florida reefs aren’t protected, storms will increase flooding &#038; costs: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/if-florida-reefs-arent-protected-storms-will-increase-flooding-costs-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/if-florida-reefs-arent-protected-storms-will-increase-flooding-costs-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 15:54:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12050147/b-FKNMS_-_Reef_34136062951-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315628</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Florida, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Marine, Marine Conservation, Microplastics, Oceans, Pollution, Storms, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Healthy reefs aren’t just about colorful fish — they also shield shorelines from intense tropical storms. If Florida’s reefs keep degrading, flooding during tropical storms could get much worse, increasing risks to people and costing nearly a billion dollars a year in damage to buildings and economic disruption annually, a new Earth’s Future study finds. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Healthy reefs aren’t just about colorful fish — they also shield shorelines from intense tropical storms. If Florida’s reefs keep degrading, flooding during tropical storms could get much worse, increasing risks to people and costing nearly a billion dollars a year in damage to buildings and economic disruption annually, a new Earth’s Future study finds. Coral reefs act as natural breakwaters, absorbing up to 97% percent of an incoming wave’s energy, with the top of the reef taking the bulk of the impact. Globally, around 200 million people benefit from this kind of natural flood protection, according to a 2014 Nature Communications study. But around the world, coral reefs are in trouble. The most recent bleaching event, driven by record temperatures, hit more than 80% of reefs. Reefs are also battling coral diseases, pollution, microplastics, physical damage and other threats. In the Florida Keys, live coral cover has declined by about 90%, over the last 40 years, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Degraded reefs aren’t as strong, and crumbling coral means they aren’t as able to cushion the impact of waves. As waves become more forceful, they erode sediment, deepening the seafloor closer to shore. “Waves break relative to their water depth. &#8230; Now, all of a sudden, you make that water deeper, that means a bigger wave can come in closer to shore,&#8221; says Curt Storlazzi, a researcher at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the study’s first author. In a previous study,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/if-florida-reefs-arent-protected-storms-will-increase-flooding-costs-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315628</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Thailand, a coral cryobank tries to buy time for dying reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-a-coral-cryobank-tries-to-buy-time-for-dying-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-a-coral-cryobank-tries-to-buy-time-for-dying-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2026 17:26:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Neelanjana Rai]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20170220/1111-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314575</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a quiet laboratory at Phuket Rajabhat University in southern Thailand, Preeyanuch Thongpoo is attempting to freeze time. As a molecular biologist, her work focuses on the cryopreservation of live larvae and algae to facilitate future restoration. Inside, suspended in liquid nitrogen at -196° Celsius (-321° Fahrenheit), are vials containing microscopic algae no bigger than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a quiet laboratory at Phuket Rajabhat University in southern Thailand, Preeyanuch Thongpoo is attempting to freeze time. As a molecular biologist, her work focuses on the cryopreservation of live larvae and algae to facilitate future restoration. Inside, suspended in liquid nitrogen at -196° Celsius (-321° Fahrenheit), are vials containing microscopic algae no bigger than specks of dust. Her team is deep-freezing the vital symbiotic algae of the cauliflower coral (genus Pocillopora), from the family Symbiodiniaceae. These live inside coral tissues and provide most of the energy corals need to survive. The larvae of the cauliflower coral itself, a rugged pioneer known for recolonizing heat-damaged reefs, have been preserved in separate vials. Working as part of the Coral Research &amp; Development Accelerator Platform (CORDAP) initiative, Preeyanuch is building more than a repository; she is creating a &#8220;living seed bank&#8221; aimed at supporting future reef restoration. Preeyanuch Thongpoo works to preserve coral specimens in hopes it will buy &#8220;crucial time” to prevent extinctions. Image courtesy of Preeyanuch Thongpoo. This effort comes at a precarious moment for Thailand’s marine heritage. Coral reefs in Thailand are under pressure from both global climate change and local stressors, including tourism and coastal development. Recent coast-to-coast surveys show that Thailand’s coral reefs, home to more than 300 species of reef-building corals, are losing structural complexity and shifting in species composition after repeated mass bleaching events driven by extreme marine heat waves between 2022 and early 2024, with heat stress in 2024-2025 likely compounding the declines. Tourism,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-thailand-a-coral-cryobank-tries-to-buy-time-for-dying-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314575</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coral bleaching: How warming seas are transforming the world’s reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/coral-bleaching-how-warming-seas-are-transforming-the-worlds-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/coral-bleaching-how-warming-seas-are-transforming-the-worlds-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2026 08:53:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/08125645/Ailinginae-Atoll_sm-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314409</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In ordinary circumstances coral reefs are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, built slowly by animals that appear to be plants. Each coral polyp houses microscopic algae that convert sunlight into sugars, supplying most of the coral’s energy. When conditions deteriorate, especially when water becomes too warm, this partnership breaks down. The coral expels [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In ordinary circumstances coral reefs are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, built slowly by animals that appear to be plants. Each coral polyp houses microscopic algae that convert sunlight into sugars, supplying most of the coral’s energy. When conditions deteriorate, especially when water becomes too warm, this partnership breaks down. The coral expels its symbionts, loses its color, and turns white. This is coral bleaching. The coral is still alive, but weakened. If stressful conditions persist, many die. Bleaching is not new, but its scale is. Before the late 20th century, mass events were rare. Over the past four decades they have become increasingly frequent and severe, driven primarily by ocean warming. A rise of only 1–2 °C above typical summer temperatures can trigger widespread bleaching across entire regions. A newly published global analysis in Nature Communications provides a stark benchmark. During the Third Global Coral Bleaching Event from 2014 to 2017, marine heatwaves affected reefs worldwide for an unusually prolonged period. Based on more than 15,000 reef surveys, researchers estimate that over half of the world’s reefs experienced moderate or worse bleaching, and roughly 15% suffered moderate or greater mortality. The scale of damage exceeded that of any previously recorded global bleaching event, underscoring the accelerating impact of ocean warming on reef systems. Global distribution of heat stress from the first three Global Coral Bleaching Events That episode is now often treated as a reference point because it was both global and sustained. Unlike earlier events, it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/coral-bleaching-how-warming-seas-are-transforming-the-worlds-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/coral-bleaching-how-warming-seas-are-transforming-the-worlds-reefs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314409</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mauritius rethinks coral restoration as reefs suffer from another mass bleaching</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mauritius-coral-reef-restoration-mass-bleaching-ocean-warming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mauritius-coral-reef-restoration-mass-bleaching-ocean-warming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2025 06:21:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/27130327/bacf0df4-e3e6-4fb2-a3ae-ff5969540b0d-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308347</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Mauritius]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Marine, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PORT LOUIS, Mauritius — Seeing coral reefs can color one’s monochrome view of the ocean forever. In the pink of health — and red, blue, green and purple — corals resemble underwater fireworks, forming glorious landscapes pulsating with marine life. But the latest episode of mass coral bleaching, starting in 2023 and stretching into 2025, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PORT LOUIS, Mauritius — Seeing coral reefs can color one’s monochrome view of the ocean forever. In the pink of health — and red, blue, green and purple — corals resemble underwater fireworks, forming glorious landscapes pulsating with marine life. But the latest episode of mass coral bleaching, starting in 2023 and stretching into 2025, has left much of the coral world gasping for life. Mass bleaching occurs when an oceanic heat wave sweeps across the planet, leaving dead and damaged corals in its wake. Such events are amplified by the climate crisis. The island nation of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa, is home to nearly 250 kinds of corals, and it wasn’t spared. This March, ocean heat waves bleached 80% of corals in Mauritian waters, according to Pierre Edgard Daniel Marie, director of the Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI). Coral reef systems may have already reached a point of no return. Scientists estimate that warm-water corals, like those found in Mauritius, reach their tipping point when the temperature rises by 1.2° Celsius (nearly 2.2° Fahrenheit). The planet has seen an average increase of 1.4°C (2.5°F), according to the 2025 Global Tipping Points report. Scientists say humans could be one generation away, by the year 2050, from losing nearly all healthy coral reefs due to climate change. With them, entire ecosystems would disappear; coral reefs shelter a quarter of all marine species. To save them, conservationists have often turned to restoration, painstakingly helping decimated coral colonies recover. But the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mauritius-coral-reef-restoration-mass-bleaching-ocean-warming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308347</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Losing Nemo: In the Red Sea, clownfish vanish as anemones bleach</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2025 20:16:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/14195038/SAD_MorganBennetSmith-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307639</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fish, Green, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Morgan Bennett-Smith descended to a familiar reef in the central Red Sea in September 2023, he expected to find the same tagged anemones and resident clownfish he had been monitoring for months. Instead, he found a ghostly landscape: every anemone had turned white, and most of the bright-orange fish that had been sheltering in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Morgan Bennett-Smith descended to a familiar reef in the central Red Sea in September 2023, he expected to find the same tagged anemones and resident clownfish he had been monitoring for months. Instead, he found a ghostly landscape: every anemone had turned white, and most of the bright-orange fish that had been sheltering in protective tentacles just weeks earlier were gone. By the following spring, the reef looked even worse. Of the 168 clownfish Bennett-Smith and his colleagues had counted in December 2022, only seven remained. A juvenile Red Sea Clownfish looks out from a bleaching anemone.When sea temperatures remain high, anemone expel their symbiotic algal partners, which can result in death.  Photo courtesy of Morgan Bennett-Smith. A new study, published in npj Biodiversity, documents the effects of a marine heat wave across three reefs in the Red Sea. First, all the anemones bleached. Then, 94-100% of the clownfish disappeared. Finally, 66-94% of the anemones died. The events represent the near-total local collapse of a mutualism that had endured for millions of years. Between 2022 and 2024, researchers tracked 168 Red Sea clownfish (Amphiprion bicinctus) and 143 host magnificent sea anemones (Radianthus magnifica) through a 2023 marine heat wave that peaked at approximately 22 degree heating weeks, a measure of accumulated heat stress. The findings challenge a long-held belief that the Red Sea might be a thermal refuge, or safe haven, from the impacts of climate change. Scientists thought that because Red Sea organisms already live in naturally hot&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307639</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change is driving fish stocks from countries’ waters to the high seas: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-is-driving-fish-stocks-from-countries-waters-to-the-high-seas-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-is-driving-fish-stocks-from-countries-waters-to-the-high-seas-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 17:14:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29130818/school-of-barracuda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305135</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fish and other marine organisms, though deeply affected by human activities, don’t respect human borders. The ranges of many commercially important species in fact straddle the borders of countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters, known as the high seas. This arrangement, which makes fisheries management difficult, is set to get even more complicated [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fish and other marine organisms, though deeply affected by human activities, don’t respect human borders. The ranges of many commercially important species in fact straddle the borders of countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters, known as the high seas. This arrangement, which makes fisheries management difficult, is set to get even more complicated as climate change continues to heat up the ocean, a new study says. The study, published July 30 in the journal Science Advances, found that more than half of the world’s straddling stocks will shift across the maritime borders between EEZs and the high seas by 2050. Most of these shifts will be into the high seas, where fisheries management is much more challenging and stocks are more likely to be overexploited. “It&#8217;s an important issue and an important paper that I think should make anyone concerned about fisheries or the seafood on their plate sit up and pay attention,” Malin Pinsky, an associate professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who wasn’t involved with the study, told Mongabay. “The shift towards the high seas that they document would have some really serious consequences, in part because fisheries management tends to be much less effective in the high seas,” added Pinsky, an expert on climate-driven fisheries distribution shifts. “Climate change is sending a whole bunch of fisheries out into the lion’s den because the high seas doesn&#8217;t have a great reputation for sustainable fisheries management.” Among the most serious potential consequences is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-is-driving-fish-stocks-from-countries-waters-to-the-high-seas-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305135</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists warn ocean-based climate fixes lack rules and oversight</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/scientists-warn-ocean-based-climate-fixes-lack-rules-and-oversight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/scientists-warn-ocean-based-climate-fixes-lack-rules-and-oversight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Aug 2025 17:04:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/26145537/Green-Sea-Turtle-Swims-Over-Great-Barrier-Reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304929</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A growing number of oceans-based solutions to the climate crisis have been tried or devised in recent years, thanks largely to an influx of funding. These range from replanting lost mangroves, to modifying the genome of corals, to pumping nutrient-rich deep water to the surface, to engineering clouds to be more reflective. While many of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A growing number of oceans-based solutions to the climate crisis have been tried or devised in recent years, thanks largely to an influx of funding. These range from replanting lost mangroves, to modifying the genome of corals, to pumping nutrient-rich deep water to the surface, to engineering clouds to be more reflective. While many of these projects and ideas may be well-intentioned, marine-climate interventions, as they’re called, are generally not subject to strong governance or oversight, a new paper says. The lack of accountability in the field creates risks of serious harm and could accelerate a “social-ecological crisis,” according to the paper, published in the journal Science on July 31. “As a group of interdisciplinary marine and climate scientists, we all started thinking, ‘hang on, what&#8217;s going on here?’” Tiffany Morrison, a professor of geography at the University of Melbourne in Australia and lead author of the paper, told Mongabay. “This is actually problematic. The field is moving so fast.” Morrison and co-authors write that “the pace of interventions is outstripping capacity to prevent unintended consequences because governance systems to ensure responsible transformation of marine systems are not yet in place.” They call for local, national and global rules that will make interventions “safe, equitable and effective.” A mangrove forest near a coral reef in Indonesia. Both ecosystems have increasingly been subject to marine-climate interventions, including “blue carbon” projects for mangroves and bioengineering and relocation projects for corals. Image courtesy of Alex Mustard/Ocean Image Bank. What’s a marine-climate intervention? Marine-climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/scientists-warn-ocean-based-climate-fixes-lack-rules-and-oversight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304929</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Belize project seeks out heat-resilient corals to protect its reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 19:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19191745/shark-coral-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304503</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — Heaters, pumps and computerized meters rigged to an everyday picnic icebox may seem like a high school science project. But this heat stress tank may hold the key to finding the most heat-resilient corals in Belize’s waters. As climate change and other human-caused stressors continue to push these rainforests of the sea [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — Heaters, pumps and computerized meters rigged to an everyday picnic icebox may seem like a high school science project. But this heat stress tank may hold the key to finding the most heat-resilient corals in Belize’s waters. As climate change and other human-caused stressors continue to push these rainforests of the sea closer toward collapse, finding and protecting coral with the highest chance of surviving in the world to come has become a key method to ensuring marine life and the ecosystem services they provide are preserved. This is what the multinational collaborative effort known as the Super Reefs program hopes to help Belize achieve. The initiative is helmed by experts from the U.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Stanford University and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), along with officials from the Belize government and other Belizean stakeholders. “Not all corals are born the same,” Anne Cohen, a tenured scientist at WHOI, who started the Super Reefs program in 2017, told Mongabay. In 2015, Cohen witnessed how extreme heat killed off 98% of the coral in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, west of Hawai‘i. “That’s just one example of the kinds of things that have been happening since the mid-1990s,” Cohen said. “So, we were in the Pacific, along with many other coral reef groups around the world, we were monitoring these events and the impact on the reefs, but I also noticed that there were some coral reefs and some parts of coral reefs that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304503</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ocean-based carbon storage ramps up, bringing investment and concern</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ocean-based-carbon-storage-ramps-up-bringing-investment-and-concern/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ocean-based-carbon-storage-ramps-up-bringing-investment-and-concern/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 16:11:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19154011/sperm-whale-deep-blue-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304547</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Geoengineering, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Capturing carbon to ship or funnel it offshore for storage in depleted marine oil and gas wells is gaining momentum as a proposed climate solution, even as it faces criticism. Across the globe, plans are afoot to launch multiple projects — such as in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast Asia — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Capturing carbon to ship or funnel it offshore for storage in depleted marine oil and gas wells is gaining momentum as a proposed climate solution, even as it faces criticism. Across the globe, plans are afoot to launch multiple projects — such as in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast Asia — backed by government funding in many cases. This form of carbon capture and storage, or CCS, involves collecting carbon (often directly from polluting industries such as cement factories or steelworks) and altering it into supercritical form, the highest density of CO2. It’s then moved via ship or pipeline to offshore infrastructure. Once there, the CO2 is pumped into a former well and capped. “These same formations held oil and gas for millions of years before they were extracted — this means we know the CO2 can be stored permanently on the same timescale, and we have detailed data and a strong understanding of their geology and how much they can store,” Chris Consoli, the Global CCS Institute’s principal for storage, told Mongabay in an email. But this proposed climate solution, which aims to piggyback on the fossil fuel industry’s existing infrastructure and workforce, has been slammed by critics as a means to justify continued exploitation of fossil fuels using a method riddled with underperformance and failure. For critics, this simple picture of using the ocean subsurface as a carbon storehouse belies the need for masses of new green infrastructure, energy and finance, while also being&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ocean-based-carbon-storage-ramps-up-bringing-investment-and-concern/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304547</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microbiomes may be corals’ secret weapon against climate change: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2025 17:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/12094137/fish-coral-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304039</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Pacific Ocean, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Microorganisms, Ocean Warming, Temperatures, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others? A research team led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama investigated this question [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others? A research team led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama investigated this question by studying not just corals’ genes and environment, but also their microbiomes. By running a series of heat stress tests on two populations of Pocillopora corals — one from the Gulf of Panama and the other from the Gulf of Chiriquí, both on Panama’s Pacific coast — they found that corals exposed to upwelling in the Gulf of Panama were better able to withstand higher temperatures, thanks in part to their microbiomes. The study was published in June in the journal Current Biology. A coral’s microbiome is made up of microorganisms such as algae and bacteria, some of which are considered “symbionts” that co-evolved to live within a host coral. Collectively, the microbiome, symbionts and host are called the holobiont. The new study is the first in the Eastern Pacific to assess coral heat tolerance by looking at the entire holobiont, said Victoria Marie Glynn, an evolutionary biologist and lead author of the study, who at the time was earning her doctorate at McGill University in Canada. “You cannot separate what the host is doing from what its microbiome is doing,” Glynn said. Microbiomes can influence gene expression and adaptation, for example. “All of that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304039</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Restoration, protection aim to save Belize’s coral reef from extreme heat and disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2025 04:48:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/08101002/fish-belize-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302027</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park had just 6% live coral cover. By 2023, it had reached approximately 60% — the result of the group planting more than 92,000 fragments of coral within the 1-hectare (2.5-acre) shallow fringing reef. The group, Fragments of Hope (FOH), is a Belize-based nonprofit organization focused on restoring coral reef habitats. Their work at Laughing Bird Caye is widely regarded as the best example of reef restoration in the Caribbean. But while the park stands as a beacon of hope for coral restoration, it has not been immune to the onslaught of record-breaking temperatures occurring globally. “2024 was the worst bleaching event since we’ve been recording around 2008,” Lisa Carne, FOH’s founder, said during an interview with Mongabay. Many of the corals planted at Laughing Bird have succumbed to extreme heat stress and disease. At Moho Caye, another restoration site, live coral cover dropped from more than 50% to less than 5%, “likely reflecting similar declines at Laughing Bird,” Carne said. It’s not just Laughing Bird and Moho. Unprecedented coral bleaching, a relatively new illness called stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), and other threats to corals are negatively impacting reef health across Belize, and it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302027</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will temperate seas act as refuge for coral reefs? Not in time, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/will-temperate-seas-act-as-refuge-for-coral-reefs-not-in-time-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/will-temperate-seas-act-as-refuge-for-coral-reefs-not-in-time-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2025 16:55:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/08110449/paddleboarders-coral-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302039</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate change has already caused significant declines in coral reef coverage globally and is expected to do much further damage in coming decades. Some scientists have held out hope that tropical corals could improve their viability by expanding their range — by finding refuge in more temperate seas. But a new study throws cold water [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Climate change has already caused significant declines in coral reef coverage globally and is expected to do much further damage in coming decades. Some scientists have held out hope that tropical corals could improve their viability by expanding their range — by finding refuge in more temperate seas. But a new study throws cold water on the idea. Coral reef decline will far outpace expansion into temperate waters, the study finds. Most of the damage to corals will be done in the next 40 to 80 years, but expansion will take centuries, according to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances on June 6. The “mismatch between the timescales,” as the authors call it, could spell bad news for corals and the ecosystems that depend on them, though the severity of the loss will depend on levels of greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades. “The main finding is that we’re probably talking about centuries plus, in terms of how long it takes them to move to high latitudes,” Noam Vogt-Vincent, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. This finding shows “the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the study says. Coral reef and reef fish in Marsa Alam, Egypt. Image by Pascal van de Vendel via Unsplash (Public domain). It’s well understood that coral reefs are at risk from rising temperatures. They’re currently facing the fourth mass bleaching event since 1998. Bleaching involves corals expelling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/will-temperate-seas-act-as-refuge-for-coral-reefs-not-in-time-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302039</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As a fishing port rises in Kenya, locals see threats to sea life, livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/as-a-fishing-port-rises-in-kenya-locals-see-threats-to-sea-life-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/as-a-fishing-port-rises-in-kenya-locals-see-threats-to-sea-life-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2025 20:26:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anthony Langat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/24105450/A-fisherman-shows-one-of-his-catch-in-Wasini-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300774</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Aquaculture, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Crops, Development, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Infrastructure, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Politics, Ports, Protected Areas, Saltwater Fish, Social Justice, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is Mongabay’s first story in a short series about the new Shimoni Fish Port. Read the second story here. SHIMONI, Kenya — Behind the gates of a small, forested property by the sea in Shimoni, a town on Kenya’s south coast, preparation for coral restoration was underway one afternoon in March. One part of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is Mongabay’s first story in a short series about the new Shimoni Fish Port. Read the second story here. SHIMONI, Kenya — Behind the gates of a small, forested property by the sea in Shimoni, a town on Kenya’s south coast, preparation for coral restoration was underway one afternoon in March. One part of the compound was strewn with concrete sinkers, steel and plastic cages and mounting blocks. Young men and women took advantage of the shade to work protected from the unforgiving coastal sun. They were building artificial reef structures to hold baby corals that they would soon outplant into the sea nearby, part of a project led by a local branch of the Dutch NGO REEFolution. Since 2018, the project has placed 3,600 artificial reef structures to restore coral reefs on more than 5,000 square meters (54,000 square feet) of the Wasini Channel. A short distance west of the REEFolution compound, also right on Wasini Channel, a new fishing port is taking shape. Its large blue and white buildings dominate the landscape. A new jetty dwarfs the existing one used by local fishers. Soon, residents will start seeing huge international fishing vessels docking at the port. The port project, which has been supported by President William Ruto, cost the government 2.6 billion Kenyan shillings ($20 million) and is slated for completion in June. While the government promises local people opportunities for jobs and businesses once operations start, some residents foresee more harm than good from the port.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/as-a-fishing-port-rises-in-kenya-locals-see-threats-to-sea-life-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300774</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/despite-protected-status-vietnams-corals-have-declined-in-20-years-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/despite-protected-status-vietnams-corals-have-declined-in-20-years-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jun 2025 07:52:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19094016/coral-reef-vietnam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300962</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Development, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Degradation, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Seagrass, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Vietnam’s first marine protected area, Nha Trang Bay, has lost nearly 200 hectares (494 acres) of coral reef since its creation in 2002, a new study shows. The alarming decline raises fresh questions about how effective conservation efforts have been in protecting one of the country’s most iconic coastal ecosystems. Published in April in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Vietnam’s first marine protected area, Nha Trang Bay, has lost nearly 200 hectares (494 acres) of coral reef since its creation in 2002, a new study shows. The alarming decline raises fresh questions about how effective conservation efforts have been in protecting one of the country’s most iconic coastal ecosystems. Published in April in the journal Water, the study by the Joint Vietnam-Russia Tropical Science and Technology Research Center used remote sensing and machine learning to track coral changes across Nha Trang Bay’s 160-square-kilometer (62-square-mile) MPA. From 2002-24, about 191 hectares (472 acres) of coral reefs vanished, especially around Tre, Mun, Một, Tằm and Miễu islands. Despite having protected status since 2002, the bay’s reefs continue to shrink. Key drivers include land use change, warming seas and crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) outbreaks, according to the study. “Among these, land-use change—particularly from long-term landfill activities—emerged as the dominant driver of coral loss,” the authors wrote. The Nha Trang Bay Marine Protected Area and its functional zones are influenced by the Cai and Tac rivers. Image courtesy of Nguyen Trinh Duc Hieu/ Joint Vietnam-Russia Tropical Science and Technology Research Center. Hoàng Công Tín is an expert in mapping marine habitats to enable conservation and sustainable use and dean of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at Vietnam&#8217;s Huế University. “Nha Trang Bay’s experience highlights a critical lesson: early designation of MPAs is not sufficient without adaptive, science-based management and active local engagement,” Hoàng, who was not involved in the study, told Mongabay by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/despite-protected-status-vietnams-corals-have-declined-in-20-years-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300962</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers race to understand disease killing Caribbean corals at unprecedented rates</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2025 01:35:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/05205502/1-Antonio-Busiello-coral-disease-Honduras-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300271</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Green, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This May, divers found stony coral tissue loss disease on corals in Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Belize, for the first time. The team from Fragments of Hope, a nonprofit, regularly monitors the site. A month previously there had been no sign at all of the disease. But on their trip in May, they found [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This May, divers found stony coral tissue loss disease on corals in Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Belize, for the first time. The team from Fragments of Hope, a nonprofit, regularly monitors the site. A month previously there had been no sign at all of the disease. But on their trip in May, they found pillar (Dendrogyra cylindricus), symmetrical brain (Pseudodiploria strigosa) and mountainous star (Orbicella faveolata) corals covered with lesions, a telltale sign of this devastating disease that has slammed reefs in Florida and across the Caribbean over the past 10 years. “That’s how fast it spreads,” says Lisa Carne, founder and director of Fragments of Hope. Maze coral (Meandrina meandrites) with a SCTLD lesion in Babco Chinchorro, Mexico. The telltale lesions quickly spread over corals, sloughing away the living tissue and exposing the white calcium carbonate skeleton. “It’s going and going and never stops,” says Melina Soto, Mexico coordinator with Healthy Reefs for Healthy People. Image by Raul Telcalco. Corals, like humans, sometimes get sick. But stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is different, researchers say. It afflicts an unprecedented number of species, has spread over a vast area, and kills incredibly quickly. Massive coral colonies, some hundreds of years old, can die within weeks or months, leaving reefs unrecognizable. Miraculously, Laughing Bird Caye had, until now, been spared. The tiny island sits landward from Belize’s main barrier reef, separated by deep channels, and the team had hoped against hope that this might offer some protection. “We’ve been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300271</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New method can detect nearly every coral genus in Japan from water samples</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-method-can-detect-nearly-every-coral-genus-in-japan-from-water-samples/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-method-can-detect-nearly-every-coral-genus-in-japan-from-water-samples/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2025 15:46:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/25150937/Mezaki_bleached-coral-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300235</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Genetics, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sending scuba divers down to survey corals is time-consuming and expensive. In recent years, scientists have developed other methods to determine what kinds of corals are down there just by collecting water samples, sometimes right from the surface. These rely on analysis of the DNA that the corals secrete into the water. Now, a team [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sending scuba divers down to survey corals is time-consuming and expensive. In recent years, scientists have developed other methods to determine what kinds of corals are down there just by collecting water samples, sometimes right from the surface. These rely on analysis of the DNA that the corals secrete into the water. Now, a team of marine scientists based in Japan, an archipelagic nation with a high level of coral biodiversity, has developed a system that can detect nearly all of the country’s 85 reef-building corals based on this free-floating genetic material in the environment, which scientists call environmental DNA, or eDNA. They released the results in a new study published in the journal Galaxea on May 22. “It’s an incredible system that so far no one [else] can do,” study co-author Noriyuki Satoh, head of the marine genomics unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), told Mongabay. Essentially, no other research group in the world has achieved the same level of detection accuracy and coverage for corals using eDNA as Satoh’s team. eDNA research on corals can help scientists understand the changes wrought by global warming and marine pollution by providing coral identification data faster and in some cases more accurately. Satoh said OIST’s system can help save 10 or 20 experts from needing to work for a week or two on a diving survey in Japanese islands — and he and his team plan to expand it to other countries. Noriyuki Satoh, left, head of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-method-can-detect-nearly-every-coral-genus-in-japan-from-water-samples/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300235</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Marine artificial upwelling, problematic climate solution slow to advance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/marine-artificial-upwelling-problematic-climate-solution-slow-to-advance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/marine-artificial-upwelling-problematic-climate-solution-slow-to-advance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2025 16:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/30115503/Image_3-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299860</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Australia, Caribbean, China, Global, Hawaii, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Geoengineering, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Artificial upwelling is a geoengineering climate solution with a long history. The concept: mimic natural ocean upwelling by pumping cold, nutrient-rich seawater up from ocean depths via pipes to the surface. There it can cause a growth surge in CO2-absorbing plankton, nourishing aquaculture and tackling climate change. Closer to shore, the technique could even protect [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Artificial upwelling is a geoengineering climate solution with a long history. The concept: mimic natural ocean upwelling by pumping cold, nutrient-rich seawater up from ocean depths via pipes to the surface. There it can cause a growth surge in CO2-absorbing plankton, nourishing aquaculture and tackling climate change. Closer to shore, the technique could even protect coral reefs from marine heat waves. But as simple as this idea sounds in theory, it has faced complex technological challenges, high costs and failed experiments, though it continues to garner interest. Whether marine upwelling will ever break through as a solution for fisheries or the climate is unclear. Bleached coral reef off Lizard Island, Australia. Researchers there studied the use of “cool water injections” to protect coral reefs from heatwaves and bleaching in 2020 and found that doing so would incur huge energy costs, limiting feasibility. Image courtesy of The Ocean Agency/Ocean Image Bank. Upwelling isn’t a new idea. First proposed in the 1970s as a method to feed fish farms and grow seaweed, it has seen waves of testing come and go. Over past decades, trials have operated with mixed success. In 2008, one test near Hawai‘i pumped cold, nutrient-rich water from a depth of 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet). But that trial lasted just 17 hours before the pump failed. By contrast, tests in a semi-closed embayment in Aoshan Bay, China, between 2018 and 2020, proved more successful in prompting macroalgae growth. Starting in the 1990s, artificial upwelling was proposed as a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/marine-artificial-upwelling-problematic-climate-solution-slow-to-advance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299860</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Honduran reef stumps conservationists with its unlikely resilience</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/a-honduran-reef-stumps-conservationists-with-its-unlikely-resilience/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/a-honduran-reef-stumps-conservationists-with-its-unlikely-resilience/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 May 2025 15:02:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fritz Pinnow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/01140522/4-reef-cocalito-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298464</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America and Honduras]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[algae, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TELA BAY, Honduras — Viewed from the boat, the mighty elkhorn corals shimmer through the clear water, their tips grazing the surface and seeming to reach for the hull. But it’s only when one is submerged that the corals display their full size and strength, and all the busy biodiversity swarming around them. Some of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TELA BAY, Honduras — Viewed from the boat, the mighty elkhorn corals shimmer through the clear water, their tips grazing the surface and seeming to reach for the hull. But it’s only when one is submerged that the corals display their full size and strength, and all the busy biodiversity swarming around them. Some of the corals are wider than a man is tall, and the white-tipped, antler-like branches of individual corals interlock to create expanses of reef that entirely cover the seafloor, leaving nothing to see but coral. On it stretches across the bay, for more than a kilometer (0.62 miles). The latest &#8220;report card&#8221; on Mesoamerica’s coral reefs made clear that 2024’s hottest-ever recorded summer temperatures devastated some of the region’s most iconic reef sites. But against all odds, this reef at the western end of Tela Bay on Honduras’s Caribbean coast, composed largely of critically endangered elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata), displays remarkable health. Known affectionately as “Cocalito,” this patch of coral is raising urgent questions about what qualities endow corals with heat resilience and whether they can be harnessed to help save other reefs. “The reef challenges our basic understanding of corals, as it is thriving at a time where we are trying to stop reefs from dying,” Paolo Guardiola, a biologist and dive instructor in the town of Tela, told Mongabay. As the area’s program coordinator with the Coral Reef Alliance, a U.S.-based NGO that supports local reef conservation groups, he’s been monitoring the bay’s coral&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/a-honduran-reef-stumps-conservationists-with-its-unlikely-resilience/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298464</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists warn coral restoration can’t keep pace with global reef collapse</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/scientists-warn-coral-restoration-cant-keep-pace-with-global-reef-collapse/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/scientists-warn-coral-restoration-cant-keep-pace-with-global-reef-collapse/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2025 20:29:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/29200743/CBNMS_Corals_-_Flickr_-_National_Marine_Sanctuaries-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298355</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Coral restoration won’t save reefs from global warming, according to a recent study – at least, not the way we’re doing it now. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Helsinki and published earlier this month in Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution, finds coral degradation is significantly outpacing restoration efforts. Its results indicate most [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Coral restoration won’t save reefs from global warming, according to a recent study – at least, not the way we’re doing it now. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Helsinki and published earlier this month in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution, finds coral degradation is significantly outpacing restoration efforts. Its results indicate most unsuccessful projects fail due to prohibitive costs, lack of global coordination, location unsuitability, and bleaching events caused by rising water temperatures, during which coral becomes white due to stress. Algae called zooxanthellae live within corals, providing nutrients and protective compounds, as well as giving corals their vibrant colors. But when water temperature changes too much, corals expel their zooxanthellae, which causes them to become white, or “bleached.” While corals can recover from short-term bleaching, corals can die if water remains too warm for too long. The leading cause of coral bleaching is increased ocean temperature caused by climate change. Image by Wendy Cover/NOAA via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Despite “public perception and scientific enthusiasm” for coral restoration, we can’t restore our way out of this one, the study finds. “Scaling up restoration to any meaningful level going beyond the very local scale would be extremely challenging,” senior author Giovanni Strona, now a quantitative ecologist at the European Commission in Italy, told Mongabay. Sebastian Ferse, a senior ecosystem scientist at the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research in Germany, who wasn’t involved with the study, told Mongabay that its results suggest “reef restoration is prohibitively expensive,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/scientists-warn-coral-restoration-cant-keep-pace-with-global-reef-collapse/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298355</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Even the Gulf of Aqaba’s ‘supercorals’ bleached during 2024 heat wave</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2025 16:14:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ilan Ben Zion]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/11124442/Nursery2_IBZ-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297486</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Israel, Jordan, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Extreme Weather, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Heatwave, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EILAT, Israel — Rugged red mountains tower over the aquamarine waters off Eilat in southern Israel. A group of divers plunges beneath the waves on a warm winter morning, bound for a crag encrusted with coral known as Japanese Gardens. The hypnotic reverie of the undersea world shatters with the shock of spotting a bone-white [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EILAT, Israel — Rugged red mountains tower over the aquamarine waters off Eilat in southern Israel. A group of divers plunges beneath the waves on a warm winter morning, bound for a crag encrusted with coral known as Japanese Gardens. The hypnotic reverie of the undersea world shatters with the shock of spotting a bone-white colony. Scientists have long considered the corals in the Gulf of Aqaba to be uniquely resilient to extreme temperatures, and have taken to calling them “supercorals.” Bleaching had never before been documented here. For the first time on record, however, last summer’s record-smashing heat wave brought these corals to “the threshold we’ve been talking about all along,” Maoz Fine, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor studying coral resilience and one of the leading Israeli scientists monitoring the gulf ecosystem, told Mongabay. He and his colleagues first received reports of bleached corals in August 2024 and are now studying the episode’s severity and extent. “There’s no doubt that we need to wake up, because climate change is having an impact — here all the more so,” he said. Coral reef ecosystems are likened to submarine rainforests: diversity of life in stupefying abundance. As oceans warm due to human-caused climate change, corals — colonies of jellyfish-like animals called cnidarians — eject the photosynthetic zooxanthellae that live symbiotically within their cells, and turn a ghastly white. While not a death sentence, the weakened corals, which form a cornerstone of nutrient-poor tropical ecosystems, are left highly vulnerable. Many die.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297486</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After historic 2024 coral bleaching, hope remains for Mesoamerican Reef</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/after-historic-2024-coral-bleaching-hope-remains-for-mesoamerican-reef/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/after-historic-2024-coral-bleaching-hope-remains-for-mesoamerican-reef/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Dec 2024 19:03:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fritz Pinnow]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/06080649/sea-turtle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Mesoamerica, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2024 brought the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, only narrowly surpassing the record set in 2023. The trend, driven largely by human-caused climate change, according to NASA, caused the worst bleaching event on record among delicate coral populations around the world. This includes the Caribbean Sea, home to the Mesoamerican Reef, the longest barrier [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2024 brought the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, only narrowly surpassing the record set in 2023. The trend, driven largely by human-caused climate change, according to NASA, caused the worst bleaching event on record among delicate coral populations around the world. This includes the Caribbean Sea, home to the Mesoamerican Reef, the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere. The latest instalment of the Mesoamerican Reef Report Card, a periodic health assessment, finds that the 2024 bleaching event reduced the reef’s coral cover. But though the overall health of the Mesoamerican Reef remains “poor,” its health actually improved for the first time in five years, a positive development the report attributes to an increase in fish populations due to effective enforcement of fisheries rules. The Mesoamerican Reef stretches 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. It is considered a biodiversity hotspot and features more than 60 types of corals and more than 500 fish species, along with endangered sea turtles and the world’s largest congregation of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). This biodiversity attracts millions of tourist divers every year. Nearly 2 million people also depend on the reef for their livelihoods. The Mesoamerican Reef Report Card is the result of a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation effort by Healthy Reefs for Healthy People, an international partnership program to assess and protect the region’s coral reefs. The group released the first report card in 2008 and issues updates every 2-3 years, drawing on collaborative monitoring&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/after-historic-2024-coral-bleaching-hope-remains-for-mesoamerican-reef/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/after-historic-2024-coral-bleaching-hope-remains-for-mesoamerican-reef/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291298</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protecting coral reefs boosts fish numbers by 10%: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/protecting-coral-reefs-boosts-fish-numbers-by-10-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/protecting-coral-reefs-boosts-fish-numbers-by-10-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Oct 2024 15:48:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/25134522/coral-reef-fish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289211</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study suggests that more than 10% of the fish swimming in coral reefs are there because their habitats have been protected. Tropical reefs support vibrant communities of fish and other sea life, and they provide critical sustenance for many people living in coastal communities. As a result, they’re seen as key targets for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study suggests that more than 10% of the fish swimming in coral reefs are there because their habitats have been protected. Tropical reefs support vibrant communities of fish and other sea life, and they provide critical sustenance for many people living in coastal communities. As a result, they’re seen as key targets for conservation. In some places, that’s meant restrictions on when and where fishers can operate and the kind of gear they can use. Elsewhere, governments have established marine protected areas (MPAs) — essentially ocean-based parks that may not allow much fishing, if any at all. On the whole, only about 8.4% of the ocean is covered by MPAs, according to the World Database on Protected Areas. And research drawing on a 2021 study in Science called The MPA Guide reveals that an even smaller proportion, less than 3%, is “fully or highly protected.” Such statistics reveal that simply tracking the extent of protected spaces only gets us so far in understanding why some MPAs are successful in conserving sea life while others languish in holding back threats like overfishing. “It&#8217;s a bit like judging the success of your stock portfolio by the number of shares you’ve bought, rather than how well they’ve performed,” Joshua Cinner, a professor of geography and the director of the Thriving Oceans Research Hub at Australia’s University of Sydney who co-authored the new study, told Mongabay in an email. To get a read on how well MPAs and other conservation strategies for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/protecting-coral-reefs-boosts-fish-numbers-by-10-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/protecting-coral-reefs-boosts-fish-numbers-by-10-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289211</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Mexico, scientists race to save Marietas Islands’ corals from ocean warming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-mexico-scientists-race-to-save-marietas-islands-corals-from-ocean-warming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-mexico-scientists-race-to-save-marietas-islands-corals-from-ocean-warming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2024 09:01:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Agustín del Castillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/30085031/DSCI1004-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The corals of the Marietas Islands, a pair of small islands in Mexico’s Pacific Ocean, have survived record-high temperatures and uncontrolled tourism triggered by the sudden international fame of “the beach of love,” a picture-perfect quarry where people like to take selfies. Today, the corals of Islas Marietas National Park, created in 2005, are recovering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The corals of the Marietas Islands, a pair of small islands in Mexico’s Pacific Ocean, have survived record-high temperatures and uncontrolled tourism triggered by the sudden international fame of “the beach of love,” a picture-perfect quarry where people like to take selfies. Today, the corals of Islas Marietas National Park, created in 2005, are recovering slowly, reduced to a fifth of the coverage they had 30 years ago. In 2016, a government decree put a stop to uncontrolled tourism in the area. But during the second half of 2023, El Niño set back the recovery process. High temperatures brought on by the climate event caused widespread coral bleaching. Coral bleaching. Photo courtesy of the University of Guadalajara’s coral rehabilitation project for Mexico’s central Pacific. Bleaching happens when corals become stressed by pollution, acidification or a rise in ocean temperatures. They expel the tiny algae living inside them providing food. Once that happens, the corals lose their color and die. But it’s not all bad news, according to Paola Rodríguez Troncoso, coordinator of the University of Guadalajara’s coral rehabilitation project for Mexico’s central Pacific. The marine biologist said more than a decade of work has led to the discovery of individual corals that show resistance to high temperatures. The discovery, she said, could help address the problems brought on by climate change. Successes and setbacks to recovery In 1997, when the biodiversity of Las Marietas was hit by a previous El Niño, the biology monitoring program at the University of Guadalajara&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-mexico-scientists-race-to-save-marietas-islands-corals-from-ocean-warming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/in-mexico-scientists-race-to-save-marietas-islands-corals-from-ocean-warming/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288024</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/lab-grown-corals-resisted-bleaching-during-caribbeans-worst-marine-heat-wave/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/lab-grown-corals-resisted-bleaching-during-caribbeans-worst-marine-heat-wave/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Sep 2024 23:47:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caitlin Cooper]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/19153952/mexoci-coral-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287569</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In mid-2023, the Caribbean Sea simmered as air temperatures soared, marking the hottest days ever recorded in Puerto Rico and Barbados. Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region ranged between 1° and 3° Celsius warmer than normal (1.8°-5.4° Fahrenheit). This unprecedented heat brought on the worst coral bleaching event in the Caribbean’s history: [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In mid-2023, the Caribbean Sea simmered as air temperatures soared, marking the hottest days ever recorded in Puerto Rico and Barbados. Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region ranged between 1° and 3° Celsius warmer than normal (1.8°-5.4° Fahrenheit). This unprecedented heat brought on the worst coral bleaching event in the Caribbean’s history: It whitened 60 to 100% of the reef in some areas, and many patches died. But among the skeletons, a group of young corals kept their color, appearing to have not only survived bleaching, but resisted it altogether. “It&#8217;s pretty devastating when [you look out at] reefs that you&#8217;ve been working on for many, many years and then you see the coral suffering,” Valérie Chamberland, a coral reef ecologist with the Miami-based conservation organization SECORE International, told Mongabay. “But seeing all of our young [coral] recruits faring pretty well was very encouraging.” Under extreme thermal stress, corals expel the symbiotic food-producing algae that live in their tissue, turning pale or completely white. This bleaching can cause death when ocean temperatures surge 1°C greater than the historical maximum monthly average for two months. In 2023, abnormal heating lingered for more than five months in some parts of the Caribbean around Haiti, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica, the longest duration on record in the region. In a study published Sept. 18 in the journal PLOS ONE that Chamberland co-authored, researchers found that certain species of coral bred for restoration showed few signs of bleaching despite the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/lab-grown-corals-resisted-bleaching-during-caribbeans-worst-marine-heat-wave/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/lab-grown-corals-resisted-bleaching-during-caribbeans-worst-marine-heat-wave/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287569</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New approach to restore coral reefs on mass scale kicks off in Hawai‘i</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/new-approach-to-restore-coral-reefs-on-mass-scale-kicks-off-in-hawaii/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/new-approach-to-restore-coral-reefs-on-mass-scale-kicks-off-in-hawaii/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2024 19:17:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/25142820/reefs-island-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283580</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Hawaii, Pacific Islands, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Reforestation, Research, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A decade ago, the world experienced its third global coral bleaching event — and the vibrant, colorful corals along the western coast of Hawai‘i’s big island began to fade. Rising sea temperatures drove these famed corals to “bleach,” a process that strips them of color following the expulsion of a nutrient-producing algae called zooxanthellae. Without [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A decade ago, the world experienced its third global coral bleaching event — and the vibrant, colorful corals along the western coast of Hawai‘i’s big island began to fade. Rising sea temperatures drove these famed corals to “bleach,” a process that strips them of color following the expulsion of a nutrient-producing algae called zooxanthellae. Without this vital algae, corals essentially starve. In 2015, researchers surveyed 14,000 coral colonies across the South Kohala and North Kona regions of West Hawai‘i and found that 38-92% of the reefs had been partially or fully bleached. Many ended up dying. “These aren&#8217;t little corals dying; these are really big, the size of Volkswagens, that have died,” ecologist Greg Asner, director of Arizona University’s Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science and a longtime Hawai‘i resident, told Mongabay in an interview. “It&#8217;s brutal to see, it&#8217;s visually arresting.” For Asner, this bleaching event in Hawai‘i was a turning point, not only for the health of the reefs, but for his work. “It changed my career,” he said. “I had been doing a lot more with tropical forests … but with that 2015 event, I said, ‘We got to do way more on reefs.’” Asner stayed true to his intention. In 2018, he and his team began using the Global Airborne Observatory, an airborne laboratory that Asner help equip with advanced mapping technologies such as lasers and infrared imaging technologies to survey coral colonies in the Caribbean and Hawai‘i to assess their health and understand what&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/new-approach-to-restore-coral-reefs-on-mass-scale-kicks-off-in-hawaii/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global coral bleaching now underway looks set to be largest on record</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/global-coral-beaching-now-underway-looks-set-to-be-largest-on-record/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/global-coral-beaching-now-underway-looks-set-to-be-largest-on-record/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2024 09:40:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/16092342/coral-bleach-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281002</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Great Barrier Reef]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Mongabay Data Studio, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ATHENS — The world is currently undergoing its fourth global bleaching event, with coral bleaching occurring in the territorial waters of more than 50 countries, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the U.S. and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). Since February 2023, more than 54% of the world’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ATHENS — The world is currently undergoing its fourth global bleaching event, with coral bleaching occurring in the territorial waters of more than 50 countries, according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the U.S. and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). Since February 2023, more than 54% of the world’s coral reef areas have experienced heat stress that causes bleaching, making this the second most spatially extensive bleaching event on record. The largest bleaching event to date occurred between 2014 and 2017 when more than 56% of the world&#8217;s reefs experienced heat stress that led to bleaching. However, according to Derek Manzello, the coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch, a program that uses satellite data to help identify bleaching events, the current event will likely surpass this previous record since “the percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress has been increasing by roughly 1% per week.” Global coral bleaching events also occurred in 1998 and 2010, when bleaching occurred in 20% and 35% of coral reef areas respectively. “This should be viewed as another very urgent global warning on the state of ocean health,” Manzello told Mongabay in an email. “Coral reefs and other marine ecosystems are experiencing severe and devastating impacts as the oceans continue to warm.” Coral bleaching happens when sea temperatures rise to a level that stresses the coral reefs, driving them to expel their life-sustaining and colorful algae, which turns them ghostly white. While corals can recover from bleaching, prolonged&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/global-coral-beaching-now-underway-looks-set-to-be-largest-on-record/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/global-coral-beaching-now-underway-looks-set-to-be-largest-on-record/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281002</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Corals dying’ as yet more bleaching hits heat-stressed Great Barrier Reef</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/corals-dying-as-yet-more-bleaching-hits-heat-stressed-great-barrier-reef/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/corals-dying-as-yet-more-bleaching-hits-heat-stressed-great-barrier-reef/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2024 13:14:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/05130735/OceanImageBank_TheOceanAgency_Bleaching_13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279478</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Great Barrier Reef, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The southern section of the Great Barrier Reef is undergoing extensive coral bleaching, according to researchers who recently surveyed the region. The discovery has raised fears that this fragile coral reef system is on the brink of a seventh mass bleaching event since 1998. In late February, scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The southern section of the Great Barrier Reef is undergoing extensive coral bleaching, according to researchers who recently surveyed the region. The discovery has raised fears that this fragile coral reef system is on the brink of a seventh mass bleaching event since 1998. In late February, scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), a tropical marine research center in Townsville, Queensland, and staff from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (also known as the Reef Authority), the federal agency that manages the reef, conducted a series of helicopter surveys to assess the health of dozens of reefs along the southern region of the Great Barrier Reef. The surveyed reefs included 27 inshore reefs of the Keppel Islands and the Gladstone region and 27 offshore reefs in what’s known as the Capricorn Bunker group. The Reef Authority reported that coral bleaching was “extensive and fairly uniform” across all surveyed reefs and aligned with observations of accumulated heat stress. “In the reef communities surveyed most coral cover displayed some level of bleaching with white and fluorescent colonies observed in shallow reef areas,” Mark Read, the director of reef health at the Reef Authority, said in a statement. Bleaching observed on the Great Barrier Reef during this latest bleaching event. Image © Underwater Earth / XL Catlin Seaview Survey / Christophe Bailhache. Neal Cantin, a senior research scientist at AIMS, said the team also observed “limited bleaching” further north, affecting coral reefs above the city of Mackay and even&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/corals-dying-as-yet-more-bleaching-hits-heat-stressed-great-barrier-reef/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279478</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seabird poop is recipe for coral recovery amid climate-driven bleaching</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/seabird-poop-is-recipe-for-coral-recovery-amid-climate-driven-bleaching/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/seabird-poop-is-recipe-for-coral-recovery-amid-climate-driven-bleaching/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2024 09:41:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Dulisse]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/26144446/seabirds_flying_Casey_Benkwitt-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279177</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fellows, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On an island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean lies an invaluable treasure: “white gold.” While it may not be a gem to proposition a prospective fiancée with, it does protect the ocean’s most biodiverse ecosystem: coral reefs. Casey Benkwitt, a research fellow at Lancaster University in the U.K., says she couldn’t be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On an island chain in the middle of the Indian Ocean lies an invaluable treasure: “white gold.” While it may not be a gem to proposition a prospective fiancée with, it does protect the ocean’s most biodiverse ecosystem: coral reefs. Casey Benkwitt, a research fellow at Lancaster University in the U.K., says she couldn’t be more thrilled about it. “It’s exciting to learn and show something new about the world that we didn’t know before,” Benkwitt says. “Seabird poop is really good for the islands and the coral reefs around them.” That’s right: poop. Corals absorb nutrients from this treasure trove of guano and it builds their resilience, according to Benkwitt and her team’s recently published paper in Science Advances. Benkwitt and her field assistants rise with the sun, take a small plastic boat to their study site, and disappear into a tropical lagoon for the day to make observations and collect coral samples. Image courtesy of Casey Benkwitt. “Corals grow about twice as fast where there are seabirds present compared to areas where we’ve lost seabirds to invasive rats that eat and destroy their populations,” Benkwitt says. From 2018-2021, Benkwitt and her team discovered that increased seabird-derived nutrients doubled coral growth rates and accelerated the recovery of corals in the Acropora genus after bleaching events to less than four years. Within a short period of time, they saw how seabird droppings helped coral reefs become more resilient. Coral SOS Most active at night, corals share a life cycle similar&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/seabird-poop-is-recipe-for-coral-recovery-amid-climate-driven-bleaching/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279177</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hotter seas lead to coral bleaching along Colombia’s coast, 2023 expeditions find</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/hotter-seas-lead-to-coral-bleaching-along-colombias-coast-2023-expeditions-find/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/hotter-seas-lead-to-coral-bleaching-along-colombias-coast-2023-expeditions-find/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jan 2024 09:35:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Antonio José Paz Cardona]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/25093147/IMG_4849-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278002</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Global Warming, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Coral bleaching is on the rise along Colombia’s Caribbean coast, according to the results of several expeditions made by Corales de Paz, an NGO that works to conserve and restore the South American country’s coral reefs. The NGO surveyed coastal coral reefs July 27-31, 2023, off the towns of Rincón del Mar, Pico de Náufrago [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Coral bleaching is on the rise along Colombia’s Caribbean coast, according to the results of several expeditions made by Corales de Paz, an NGO that works to conserve and restore the South American country’s coral reefs. The NGO surveyed coastal coral reefs July 27-31, 2023, off the towns of Rincón del Mar, Pico de Náufrago and Canto del Mero. The NGO found that 25% of the hard coral colonies showed some degree of bleaching. In impacted colonies, the percentage of bleached tissue was around 52%, indicating a moderate-to-high level of damage. The first monitoring of corals in Rincón del Mar, Sucre. Photo courtesy of Corales de Paz. Coral bleaching is caused by hotter ocean temperatures due to climate change, which, combined with pollution and ocean acidification, severely impacts the corals. Coral reefs are key to the survival of around a million species that contribute to the food security of numerous coastal communities. Bleaching occurs when corals become stressed and expel the tiny algae that live inside them, which provide up to 80% of their nutrition. “When [the algae] are expelled, the corals no longer have anything to eat. If high temperature conditions persist for a long time, the corals can die of hunger,” explains Laura Cotrino, scientific director of Corales de Paz. Losing hard coral reefs has a domino effect, resulting in a massive loss of biodiversity. It also impacts the economy due to a loss of profits from tourism and fisheries. A fish caught during a dive in Rincón&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/hotter-seas-lead-to-coral-bleaching-along-colombias-coast-2023-expeditions-find/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278002</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate refugees? As the sea warms, corals thrive in Japan’s cool waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/climate-refugees-as-the-sea-warms-corals-thrive-in-japans-cool-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/climate-refugees-as-the-sea-warms-corals-thrive-in-japans-cool-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Oct 2023 20:33:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/25150021/Mezaki_coral-spawning-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=274644</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Mongabay Data Studio, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TATEYAMA, Japan — The late summer heat was no concern for University of Tokyo professor Nina Yasuda and her student research team, who descended on Tateyama, an aging resort town on the southeastern tip of Tokyo Bay, armed with snorkels, flippers, GPS devices and tools for DNA analysis one early September day. Their objective was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TATEYAMA, Japan — The late summer heat was no concern for University of Tokyo professor Nina Yasuda and her student research team, who descended on Tateyama, an aging resort town on the southeastern tip of Tokyo Bay, armed with snorkels, flippers, GPS devices and tools for DNA analysis one early September day. Their objective was under the waves: Tateyama’s growing coral communities. Across Japan, from Tateyama in the east to the Ryukyu Archipelago in the south, coral researchers like Yasuda are watching with fascination as the country’s coastal seas transform due to climate change. The threat climate change poses to tropical and subtropical coral reefs — those located within 30° of the equator, which are estimated to support one-quarter of all marine life — is well documented and widely understood. Approximately 14% of the world’s reefs have been lost since 2009, largely due to rising sea temperatures that cause corals to expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissue, a phenomenon known as bleaching. Bleached coral. Approximately 14% of the world’s reefs have been lost since 2009, largely due to rising sea temperatures that cause corals to expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissue, a phenomenon known as bleaching. Image by Takuma Mezaki. As this biodiversity crisis unfolds, the idea that tropical and subtropical corals could take refuge in cooler, temperate seas has offered cause for hope. That idea seemed to fit into a larger, global phenomenon of “tropicalization,” in which species associated with the tropics are becoming more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/climate-refugees-as-the-sea-warms-corals-thrive-in-japans-cool-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-274644</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hope, but no free pass, as Pacific corals show tolerance to warming oceans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/hope-but-no-free-pass-as-pacific-corals-show-tolerance-to-warming-oceans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/hope-but-no-free-pass-as-pacific-corals-show-tolerance-to-warming-oceans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Aug 2023 14:29:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/30135104/pacific-coral-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272763</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As climate change raises global sea temperatures, coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent and intense around the world. Yet researchers say some coral reefs may have found a way to cope with this thermal stress, offering a “glimmer of hope” for the future. In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As climate change raises global sea temperatures, coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent and intense around the world. Yet researchers say some coral reefs may have found a way to cope with this thermal stress, offering a “glimmer of hope” for the future. In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of international researchers used temperature data and field observations to find that a remote coral reef system in Palau, a Pacific nation of more than 300 islands, has become increasingly tolerant to thermal stress. They noted that Palau’s coral reefs increased their thermal tolerance by 0.1° Celsius (0.2° Fahrenheit) each decade since the late 1980s. However, according to the research, it’s unclear if this rising tolerance rate will match the pace of ocean warming. Palau’s reefs experienced powerful marine heat waves in 1998, 2010 and 2017, yet each successive event led to less coral bleaching, the study found. Similar events have previously been recorded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the coral reefs of Southeast Asia, and in Mo‘orea in French Polynesia. The researchers say there could be several explanations for the Palauan corals growing tolerant to heat. One possibility is that the reefs are becoming dominated by hardier coral species while more sensitive corals are disappearing. A second explanation is genetic adaptation — that is, natural selection may favor the genes in corals that are more likely to survive heat stress. A third suggestion is that coral reefs acclimate to thermal stress, managing to withstand high-level thermal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/hope-but-no-free-pass-as-pacific-corals-show-tolerance-to-warming-oceans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272763</doi>				</item>
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