Coral bleaching – causes and prospects of recovery

Dr Tom Bridge · Issue 100, Jan/Feb 2018 · pp. 67–73

Coral bleaching has long been a ‘heated’ issue among coral reef scientists, managers, tourist operators and the general public. The issue received has worldwide attention in the last 12-18 months as dramatic reports and photographs of large-scale coral mortality have emerged across the world. Unfortunately, many of the media reports on coral bleaching can be misleading - after all, the primary aim of media outlets is to attract readers, and journalists will often look for the most ‘dramatic’ aspect of a story rather than providing an objective view. This problem of partisan agendas and ‘alternative facts’ occurs on both sides of the political spectrum. The aim of this article is to provide a clear, factual outline of both the causes of bleaching - in particularly the 2016 event on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) – and what this means for the future of the GBR and reefs more broadly. As dive…