Seeing healthy coral in waters around and even above 31°C around many islands in PNG gave us hope that coral might be able to adapt to rising temperatures. In French Poly and Fiji we saw horrible bleaching events at 30°C already, but the coral near the equator that is used to all-year-round hot water seemed to cope. But then around the northern islands of New Hanover we started seeing 32°Cand above (not just on the surface but down to 5 m depth)–and that’s when even the hardiest coral give up. Soft coral that looks like overcooked cauliflower, anemones like lifeless, white spaghetti with desperate clown fishies trying to hide in their dying home, delicate staghorn bleached to light-blue and white that won’t give shelter to little fish once it’s dead and overgrown and even big boulders of hardy porites stone-coral going pastel-coloured and white instead of a healthy brown and green.
Such stressed reefs rely even more than healthy ones on large numbers of herbivore fish to keep algae from overgrowing damaged coral and to give them a chance to recover and regrow. Many communities here in Papua New Guinea are installing no-fishing-zones, which helps the reefs immensely in such tough times. We are looking for any environmental groups willing to encourage such efforts and to help with funding. If you have any ideas or contacts, please write to us!
We have documented and photographed several Marine Protected areas and would love to share the insights with NGOs.
