Exploration of seas in the US Virgin Islands reveals corals devastated by Hurricane Irma and Maria

Coral reef, St. Thomas, USVI
Oceans

The Independent reports on the results of early investigations into the condition of coral reefs in the US Virgin Islands after Hurricanes Irma and Maria:

To investigate how vulnerable corals are to hurricanes, and how capable they are of recovering, a team of scientists has been exploring the reefs off the island of St John.

“In shallow waters, what we found certainly lived up to our expectations – holy moly this was bad news,” said expedition leader Dr Peter Edmunds, a biologist at California State University, Northridge.

In some places coral colonies had branches ripped off and “open wounds” in which harmful bacteria and algae were growing.

Elsewhere, entire colonies had been swept away by the storms.

In deeper reefs off St John, the scientists found the picture was “more nuanced”.

There were less immediate signs of devastation, but closer inspection revealed more displaced and damaged corals.

Read more, and see video, at the Independent website.

[Image source]

No Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease in the Cayman Islands. Photo: Cayman Islands Department of Environment, via Cayman Compass.
Oceans
Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease detected in the Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands Department of Environment has discovered several incidences of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, the devastating infection that was first discovered on Florida’s coral reefs in 2014 and has since spread across the Caribbean region. Cayman Compass reports: Cayman’s reefs are under attack from the mysterious, but deadly …

CCI-CBF Week 2020.
Biodiversity
CCI-CBF Week: Nature-Based Solutions for our Caribbean Future

The Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) and the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) will be hosting the 2020 instalment of their annual CCI-CBF Week as a virtual event this year, from July 13 to 16, 2020. The theme of the 2020 CCI-CBF week is Nature-Based Solutions for our Caribbean Future, and there …

Coral bleaching. Image: Ken Clifton
Oceans
Research finds that in the Caribbean, overseas territories are more vulnerable to coral bleaching than independent countries

According to a new study, independent Caribbean island countries tend to be less vulnerable to coral bleaching than overseas territories: “We were surprised to find that independent islands have lower social-ecological vulnerability than territories…. Territories — such as the Dutch islands of Sint Maarten and Saba — tend to be …