Coral sanctuary is now a 'graveyard' due to record warm oceans, scientists find
Mashable, 07 Jun 2016.
Scientists on an expedition to Jarvis Island in the Pacific Remote Island Marine National Monument have found devastating loss of corals due to record warm ocean temperatures from April 2015 to May 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Wednesday. Read the full story in Mashable.
Corals (creative commons - Us Fisheries and Wildlife Service)
Jarvis is an unpopulated island about 1,500 miles south of Honolulu, and it is typically a treasure trove of biological diversity.
According to NOAA, the area has the highest fish biomass, which measures the total amount of fish species in a given area, yet it is studied as part of the agency's Pacific coral reef monitoring program.
The reefs “looked more like a coral graveyard," Bernardo Vargas-Angel, a scientist with NOAA Fisheries’ Pacific Islands Science Center Coral Reef Ecosystem Program said.
“One would have never believed that just a year before this was a vibrant and colorful coral reef. Coral mortality was widespread across all reef habitats and depths,” Vargas-Angel said in a statement.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution scientist Anne Cohen, who is involved in the research but wasn't on this trip, told the Associated Press that the area around Jarvis typically teems with life.
"It's like the Super Bowl of coral reefs, this place," Cohen said. "The coral cover is astronomical. The amount of life that it supports is just sky high: fish, turtle, dolphins, sharks. You name it, you find it there in large numbers."
Read the full story at Mashable.
