Coral Reefs Suffer Fourth Global Bleaching Event
see while diving was white in some reefs," Alvarez-Filip said. "I have never witnessed this level of bleaching."Bleached corals can recover if waters cool, but some Caribbean corals were so stressed that they continued to die even as temperatures dropped over winter, Alvarez-Filip added.Florida corals subjected to extreme heat shocks did not even have time to bleach, Manzello said."They got so stressed, they just died and sloughed off their tissue," Manzello said.At the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer in March, tropical reefs in the Pacific and Indian oceans also began
World's Largest Known Deep-sea Coral Reef Habitat Found
; scientists synthesized bathymetric data from 31 multibeam sonar mapping surveys, the largest of which were led by NOAA Ocean Exploration, to produce a nearly complete map of the seafloor of the Blake Plateau, located about 100 miles off the southeast U.S. coastline. The study area is nearly the size of Florida, and stretches approximately from Miami, Fla., to Charleston, S.C. The authors used a standardized system developed as part of the study to classify, delineate, and quantify coral mound features. This automated system identified 83,908 individual coral mound peak features in the mapping data, providing
Not All Underwater Reefs are Made of Coral
tugboats, fishing vessels, barges, ferries and military vessels. Reefs have also been created from rail boxcars, aircraft, vehicles, chicken transport cages, voting machines, missile platforms, concrete pipes, radio towers, tires, limestone rocks and objects purposely designed as artificial reefs.The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission deploys artificial reef modules off the coast of Mexico Beach on April 6, 2013. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission/Flickr, CC BY-NDObjects that occupy the largest amount of seafloor include limestone rocks, large concrete modules designed specifically for reefing,
NOAA Awards $16.8 Million for Research in the Gulf of Mexico
are located across the Gulf and include representatives from universities, government agencies, non-governmental organizations and the private sector:Project Title: Seagrass Conservation through Actionable Research: Management Areas for Prevention of Scarring (SCAR MAPS)Lead Institution: University of FloridaAward Amount: $1,850,864Project Description: The project team will collect geographic, biological, logistical and socioeconomic data to pair with stakeholder guidance through a co-production model to address data gaps and inform how and where to manage propeller scarring in aquatic preserves of Florida&rs
VideoRay Bolsters Subsea Mine Detection Robot with Blue Ring Imaging Acquisition
VideoRay, the producer of the Mission Specialist Defender robot recently selected by the US Navy for underwater mine detection and disposal, said Wednesday it had acquired Blue Ring Imaging, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based innovator in 3D visualization, multi-view perception, and simulation for unmanned systems.According to VideoRay, Blue Ring Imaging, known for its OctoView mixed reality software and OctoCAM multi-view 360°camera, will improve situational awareness and object detection capabilities of the Defender. "Blue Ring Imaging already boasts an impressive client list, including
Researchers Study the Fast Gulf Stream Currents
reach the surface, and their effect on carbon uptake. C-Streams is studying the physical and biogeochemical processes of the Gulf Stream, and how these processes might change into the future as a response to climate change.The five-day expedition saw scientists travel onboard the R/V Walton Smith to the Florida Straits offshore of Miami to study the role of the Gulf Stream in the downstream air-sea CO2 fluxes, and the transport of old, nutrient-rich waters northwards. The team, working as part of the UK-US ‘C-Streams’ project, included NOC scientists Louis Clement, Darren Rayner, Pete Brown
Accelerated Evolution and Automated Aquaculture Could Help Coral Weather the Heat
, but temperatures cooled just in time to prevent extensive coral deaths.But the reef’s luck may be about to run out. Hotter El Niño conditions are returning to the Pacific, driving warmer ocean temperatures. The past few months have seen global temperature records smashed. Already, reefs in Florida, the Caribbean and parts of the Pacific are bleaching. The looming southern summer is a significant concern.Can anything be done? Keeping emissions under control is obviously vital. But we can also support the Great Barrier Reef’s resilience by speeding up natural adaptation processes.In our
The Heroic Effort to Save Florida’s Coral Reef from Devastating Ocean Heat
Armed with scrub brushes, young scuba divers took to the waters of Florida’s Alligator Reef in late July to try to help corals struggling to survive 2023’s extraordinary marine heat wave. They carefully scraped away harmful algae and predators impinging on staghorn fragments, under the supervision and training of interns from Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education, or I.CARE.Normally, I.CARE’s volunteer divers would be transplanting corals to waters off the Florida Keys this time of year, as part of a national effort to restore the Florida Reef. But this year, everything
The Barrier Reef is Still in Hot Water
;t respond to the big one – climate change – with the necessary urgency. This year has seen record-breaking heat and extreme weather, with intense heating of the oceans during the northern summer. These intense marine heatwaves have devastated efforts to regrow or protect coral in places like Florida. And our own summer is just around the corner.It is not hyperbole to say the next two years are likely to be very bad for the Great Barrier Reef. It’s already enduring a winter marine heatwave. Background warming primes the reef for mass coral bleaching and death. We’ve already experienced
February 2024
