Coral reefs in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean are dying from the worst bleaching effect in more than a decade, Australian marine scientists said recently.
The bleaching, triggered by a large pool of warm water which swept into the Indian Ocean in May, has caused corals from Indonesia to the Seychelles to whiten and die, the scientists said.
Reefs in many Asian countries were affected by the phenomenon, researcher Andrew Baird said. “It is certainly the worst coral die-off we have seen since 1998. It may prove to be the worst such event known to science,” he said.
Baird , a fellow at James Cook University, said the magnitude of the event was so large, that it was “almost certainly a consequence of global warming”.
He said the temperatures were high enough to cause bleaching of the corals in Indonesia's Aceh, the area worst hit by the event. — AFP
Source: The Hindu daily dated 21/10/2010
The bleaching, triggered by a large pool of warm water which swept into the Indian Ocean in May, has caused corals from Indonesia to the Seychelles to whiten and die, the scientists said.
Reefs in many Asian countries were affected by the phenomenon, researcher Andrew Baird said. “It is certainly the worst coral die-off we have seen since 1998. It may prove to be the worst such event known to science,” he said.
Baird , a fellow at James Cook University, said the magnitude of the event was so large, that it was “almost certainly a consequence of global warming”.
He said the temperatures were high enough to cause bleaching of the corals in Indonesia's Aceh, the area worst hit by the event. — AFP
Source: The Hindu daily dated 21/10/2010
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