Jarrod Taylor has been diving in the waters off the coast of Honolulu for 20 years, and has witnessed a seismic change not only in Hawaii but in the oceans of the world.
Coral reefs, which are essential to maintain marine life and biodiversity. Lose your colors and transforming in hot waters fed by Climate change.
“It’s sad and discouraging,” Taylor said. “It was really colorful for two years ago. And now everything is whitish white.”
In accordance with the Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration, 84% or coral reefs They are now under heat stress that can cause whitening. When the ocean heats up, the algae that give the corals their vibrant tones are pushed, leaving them as white skeletons.
The Marine scientist Greg Asner leads Allen Coral Atlas, a program that maps the world’s money laundering with the objective of conservation.
“There are some Heat waves Where you and I could swim for a while and the real begins to sweat in the water. The corals and other species that live in the seabed are very sensitive than us, “said Asner, who is also the director of the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Sciences of the Arizona State University.
Both on land and in sea, 2024 was the The hottest year on Earth in the RegistryAccording to the European Center for Medium -range weather forecasts.
With the average temperature of the ocean surface that reaches 70 degrees, the ascending heat is accelerating coral deaths. I used to take years to kill a reef. Now, you can take a week, sometimes days.
Compared to Hawaii, the decrease in coral reefs is worse in the Great barrier reef And the Galapagos Islands, according to Asner. The problem is more severe in the Caribbean and the state of Florida.
“It is a heartbreaking to see these huge areas, extensions of incredible biological diversity, just go. It’s like pulling a television, and it is static, it simply stays blank … and recovery is extraordinarily slow for zero,” Asner said.
Without healthy and prosperous reefs, aquatic creatures lose their habitats and the coasts lose a natural boardwalk that can protect storm communities, avoiding billions of dollars in flood damage, according to NOAA.
While the situation is serious, all hope is not lost.
There is an impulse to educate tourists to use sunscreens that do not contain Chemicals that are harmful to coralsand solutions such as submarine nurseries allow corals to repair and grow again, but will take time.
“The next generation, the people I am training now, could be the ones who could see the recovery phase. If we have fossil fuels under control,” Asner said.