NOAA Satellite Study Reef Shows Bleaching In Every Reef Region - 2010 2nd Global Bleaching Episode

[hatrack]

EDIT

Coral reefs cover less than a tenth of 1 percent of the oceans' acreage, but that's still about 100,000 square miles. Scientists who dive to study reefs can't cover them all, so they're turning increasingly for help from satellites.

NOAA's satellite data on ocean heat showed that bleaching is occurring in all regions and becoming more frequent. Extreme bleaching kills corals because they can't survive without the nourishment the algae provide. Less intense bleaching can weaken corals, reduce their growth and reproductive ability, and make them more vulnerable to disease.

Mark Eakin, a University of Miami-trained oceanographer who coordinates NOAA's Coral Reef Watch satellite program, said that 2010 was only the second time on record that bleaching occurred globally.

The first global bleaching, from 1997 to 1999, came when an exceedingly strong El Nino - a periodic warming of ocean surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific - was followed by an especially strong version of its opposite counterpart, La Nina. About 15 percent of the world's corals died then. "Fast forward to 2010," Eakin said. This time, El Nino and the La Nina that followed weren't nearly as strong.

EDIT

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/03/01/1021584/warmer-oceans-taking-toll-on-worlds.html

[liberal N proud]

1. Then the oil from the gulf should help stain them so the are not so white

Bleaching = white


:sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm::sarcasm: