Climate crisis may have pushed world's tropical coral reefs to tipping point of 'near-annual' bleaching

Coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Sea temperatures over the reef were the highest on record this February. There are fears the world’s tropical coral reefs may have reached a tipping point of bleaching nearly every year. Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo

April 3, 2020

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Rising ocean temperatures could have pushed the world’s tropical coral reefs over a tipping point where they are hit by bleaching on a “near-annual” basis, according to the head of a US government agency program that monitors the globe’s coral reefs. Dr Mark Eakin, coordinator of Coral Reef Watch at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Guardian Australia there was a risk that mass bleaching seen along the length of the Great Barrier Reef in 2020 could mark the start of another global-scale bleaching event.

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