The coral reef in the entire Caribbean region continues to be under bleaching watch conditions, and warning conditions are becoming more prevalent, according to the Barbados-based Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH).
In its latest edition of the Caribbean Coral Reef Watch, CIMH said the bleaching outlook for the Caribbean indicates that the Windward Islands – Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines – as well as the Leeward Antilles including Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts-Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla and Trinidad, and Tobago, will be experiencing Alert Level 1 and 2 conditions from October, extending into December.
It said waters around the Windward Islands are at Alert Level 1, which means bleaching is expected. According to CIMH, Alert Level 2 means there is widespread bleaching, and some mortality is expected.
In its four-month outlook, CIMH predicts coral bleaching heat stress will be at bleaching levels from October to December.
“Heat stress conditions now predicted to be at Alert Level 1 and 2 throughout the Caribbean basin, October and November,” the CIMH added.
When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.
Increased Ocean temperature caused by climate change is the leading cause of coral bleaching. Runoff and pollution storm-generated precipitation can rapidly dilute ocean water, and runoff can carry pollutants — these can bleach near-shore corals. When temperatures are high, high solar irradiance also contributes to bleaching in shallow-water corals. Additionally, exposure to the air during extremely low tides can cause bleaching in shallow corals, according to the NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program.
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