Guam avoids severe coral bleaching predicted for this year

Vulnerable coral reefs on Guam have t experienced severe bleaching that was predicted for this year, in part because of stormy wear that reduced water temperatures, officials said.

“We have so far been very lucky,”: Whitney 

Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans said a mass coral bleaching event indicated by satellite measurements of sea surface temperatures did t occur, Pacific Daily News reported .“We have so far been very lucky,” said Whitney Hoot, a coral reef resilience coordinator with statistics and plans bureau.

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National Ocean and Atmospheric ministration’s Coral Reef Watch program indicated in July that island would likely experience significant bleaching, which often precedes coral death.

Recent stormy wear including Super Typhoon Hagibis may have contributed to coral’s survival through cloud cover that cooled surface water temperatures. Storms and wind are also likely to have exchanged hot water in shallow areas with cooler water from deeper areas, officials said.

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A bleaching warning

Coral paling, which is precursor to bleaching, has affected some corals, and island is still under a bleaching warning, which is anticipated to remain for up to four weeks, Hoot said.

“If we were expected to stay at warning level for a long time, I would be more concerned about impacts of ongoing rmal stress,” Hoot said. “But since warning status should end soon and we’re t expected to reach alert level one or alert level two, we are hopefully going to avoid severe bleaching this year.”

While severe bleaching is longer expected, reefs “are still at risk from local stressors — over-fishing, pollution, physical dam from groundings, and human users,” Hoot said.

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