Lingering Pacific heat wave threatens Hawaii coral

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Lingering Pacific heat wave threatens Hawaii coral

By CALEB JONES
September 23, 2019

CAPTAIN COOK, Hawaii (AP) — At the edge of an ancient lava flow where jagged black rocks meet the Pacific, small off-the-grid homes overlook the calm blue waters of Papa Bay on Hawaii’s Big Island — no tourists or hotels in sight. Here, one of the islands’ most abundant and vibrant coral reefs thrives just below the surface.

Yet even this remote shoreline far from the impacts of chemical sunscreen, trampling feet and industrial wastewater is showing early signs of what’s expected to be a catastrophic season for coral in Hawaii.

Just four years after a major marine heat wave killed nearly half of this coastline’s coral, federal researchers are predicting another round of hot water will cause some of the worst coral bleaching the region has ever seen.

“In 2015, we hit temperatures that we’ve never recorded ever in Hawaii,” said Jamison Gove, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “What is really important — or alarming, probably more appropriately — about this event is that we’ve been tracking above where we were at this time in 2015.”

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Read more: https://apnews.com/6d1cdd16ecbb491b833fdcfa805442d2

[mahina]

1. This is fucking heartbreaking.

It’s crushing me.

Kealakekua Bay is where we would go to see so so so many fish. We would paddle over from the bay to the monument, maybe an hour.

Please Akua protect the fish and dolphins there.