Coral bleaching occurs when abnormal environmental conditions such as warmer sea temperatures cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae; draining them of their colour.They warn that rising sea temperatures fromThe corals off Lord Howe Island – some 600 kilometres offshore from Sydney – were affected by elevated temperatures this summer, despite escaping severe bleaching that damaged the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2017.
“It’s just another indicator that climate change is affecting everywhere around the world. Here is a reef that is 600 kilometres from the mainland and we are seeing bleaching there in a lovely, beautiful ecosystem.” Deeper-water corals in the marine park, which contains species not found anywhere else and like the Barrier Reef is a World Heritage site, were still “looking quite healthy” having mostly escaped the bleaching, Leggat said.
The scientists are set to return to Lord Howe in the next few months to find out if some corals have been so severely bleached they can’t recover.