Latest / How To Protect The Ocean / Coral Bleaching Across 82 Countries: Why This Global Event Is the Deadliest Yet
Transcript
- 0:00When somebody tells you that a coral reef
- 0:02has bleached, what
- 0:03goes through your mind?
- 0:05Do you think that it only happens over a
- 0:07couple of days, maybe
- 0:08one day, maybe a couple of
- 0:09weeks?
- 0:10And then after that, the temperature goes
- 0:11down and the coral recovers, right?
- 0:14That's what you probably think.
- 0:16Today we're going to be talking about
- 0:17coral bleaching events
- 0:18that happen over years.
- 0:20There's going to be four that we're going
- 0:21to be talking about.
- 0:21We're going to go into a little bit of
- 0:23detail in each one, but
- 0:24we're currently in one since
- 0:252023 now to 2025.
- 0:28We have seen 80% of coral reefs globally
- 0:31that have bleached in this span.
- 0:35It's not only in the Great Barrier Reef.
- 0:37It's not only in Indonesia
- 0:38or in the Southeast Pacific.
- 0:39It's also in the Caribbean.
- 0:41It's also in the Atlantic.
- 0:43It's also in the Indian Ocean.
- 0:44It's also everywhere.
- 0:46It's pretty much
- 0:46everywhere that we monitor reefs.
- 0:48And this is something that we have to
- 0:49talk about on today's episode of the how
- 0:51to protect the ocean podcast.
- 0:53Let's start the show.
- 0:57Hey everybody, welcome back to another
- 0:58exciting episode of the how
- 1:00to protect the ocean podcast.
- 1:01I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is
- 1:02the podcast where you find out what's
- 1:03happening with the ocean,
- 1:22and what's happening with the ocean.
- 1:22And I'm going to show you the whole game of their series and be able to
- 1:24eliminate the other senators.
- 1:26But this is what
- 1:26Canadians do when we do work.
- 1:28We kind of look down every once in a
- 1:30while to check the score to make sure
- 1:31that the leaves are winning.
- 1:32They're losing right now.
- 1:33A little nervous.
- 1:34That's okay.
- 1:35We're going to get back into the episode.
- 1:37Look, we're going to be talking about
- 1:38coral reef bleaching
- 1:38and not just over days.
- 1:41I think what a lot of people think and
- 1:42sort of I thought when I first heard of
- 1:43coral reef bleaching because coral reefs
- 1:45can recover after bleaching.
- 1:47And we're going to go into what bleaching
- 1:49is in just a second.
- 1:49But I want you to understand the urgency
- 1:52of the current bleaching crisis.
- 1:54So we need to look at troubling history
- 1:56of global bleaching events
- 1:57over the past few decades.
- 1:59There have been four major events.
- 2:02Each one have been more
- 2:03devastating than the last.
- 2:04So the first one was in 1998 driven by a
- 2:07powerful El Nino combined with rising
- 2:09global temperatures, climate change.
- 2:12It was the first time the world saw mass
- 2:14coral death on a global scale.
- 2:16So not just bleach, but
- 2:17actual death on a global scale.
- 2:18About 16% of the world's reef like across
- 2:23the world were affected with the parts of
- 2:26the Indian Ocean losing
- 2:27up to 90% of their coral.
- 2:29That is a huge amount.
- 2:31Then came 2010.
- 2:32So we had about 12 years in between
- 2:34another intense El Nino like pattern hit
- 2:37and it triggered a
- 2:39global bleaching again.
- 2:40Right.
- 2:40Once again, while it wasn't as deadly as
- 2:421998, it served as a warning that these
- 2:45events were no longer rare.
- 2:46They were becoming more frequent.
- 2:50So you think about 1998,
- 2:51you have a major bleaching.
- 2:52I remember people like I remember
- 2:54politicians going, especially Ted Cruz
- 2:55going on like a talk show, like a
- 2:57celebrity talk show.
- 2:58I think it was Letterman
- 2:58or something like that.
- 2:59And they were talking
- 3:00about, you know, the quarries.
- 3:01They were talking about bleaching and
- 3:02they're talking about just temperature in
- 3:04general at that time.
- 3:05Climate denial was in full fledged like
- 3:07the Republicans and conservatives here in
- 3:09Canada were just denying everything.
- 3:11Kyoto Protocol was not
- 3:12even really a thing yet.
- 3:13But people were talking about that as
- 3:15like the Paris agreement of the 2000s.
- 3:17But, you know, it was starting to be
- 3:18talked about more and more because
- 3:20scientists kept observing these bleaching
- 3:22events and then also mass die
- 3:24offs and temperature rising.
- 3:26We started to see a pattern change more
- 3:28and more and we're warning people.
- 3:30I remember going, I was
- 3:31getting school at this point.
- 3:32I remember scientists and professors were
- 3:34saying, we are in trouble
- 3:35if we do not act in 1998.
- 3:38In 1998, we were going to be
- 3:40in trouble if we didn't act.
- 3:42Look, we are now 2025.
- 3:42We haven't acted as
- 3:44fast as what we needed to.
- 3:45But then, you know, you go 2010, you
- 3:48think you're done, you think you're OK,
- 3:49you think out of it
- 3:50denialism is still hot and ready.
- 3:52You know, people are just still denying.
- 3:54The oil and gas companies are strong in
- 3:57their PR and they
- 3:58just continue to do that.
- 3:59You get another bleach event.
- 4:00Not as bad, but you get
- 4:01another bleaching event.
- 4:02But all this talk about denial, people
- 4:04are like, yeah, well, you know what?
- 4:06You know, we saw a peak in 1980 and then
- 4:07it started to go down a bit.
- 4:09So it's starting to decrease.
- 4:10And you know what was happening is if you
- 4:12just looked at from 1998 to 2010, yeah,
- 4:15it didn't look like it was fluctuating
- 4:16and looked like it was going
- 4:17down because 1998 was so high.
- 4:19But when you looked at the entire graph,
- 4:21like for the last 100 or 200 years, you
- 4:23can definitely see from the industrial
- 4:25age, you started to see, whoo, it started
- 4:27to go up and then it started to kind of
- 4:29tail off a little bit, but still continue
- 4:31to rise, which we know today continues to
- 4:33rise, not as quickly, but it's still
- 4:36rising and rising and rising.
- 4:37And so we continue to get hotter and
- 4:39hotter years and break
- 4:41records every single year.
- 4:43We're in a bleaching event.
- 4:45But the third bleaching event happened
- 4:46between 2014 and 2017.
- 4:49This was the longest and most widespread
- 4:51bleaching event on record at the time.
- 4:54It struck hard across the Pacific, the
- 4:56Indian and the Atlantic oceans.
- 4:58The Great Barrier Reef in particular
- 4:59suffered catastrophic losses.
- 5:01Parts of it experienced back to back
- 5:03bleaching with little time to recover.
- 5:05So again, coral reefs can recover from
- 5:08bleaching, but if it's too long, you
- 5:11know, if it's one of those times where
- 5:12it's like the temperature stays long,
- 5:14like above 40 degrees Celsius for too
- 5:16long in a row in too many days in a row,
- 5:18we're talking about 40, 50 days, then
- 5:20bleaching will continue and the coral
- 5:22will eventually die because it can't get
- 5:24the products it needs from
- 5:26the algae that's in them.
- 5:28Right. We'll talk about
- 5:28that in just a second.
- 5:29So from 2014 to 2017 was the third event.
- 5:33That's three years. That's three years,
- 5:35right? And you're sitting there, you're
- 5:37like, hold on a second here. That was the
- 5:38longest. Now we're in the midst of a
- 5:41fourth global bleaching event.
- 5:43And from 2023 and we're now today 2025.
- 5:46So we don't know when this is ending.
- 5:48It's not ending. It hasn't ended yet.
- 5:50It's already the worst on record with
- 5:51more than 80 percent. 80 percent of coral
- 5:55reefs across 82 countries showing signs of a global bleaching event.
- 5:59And that's why we're talking about the kinds of bleaching. What's especially
- 6:01alarming is that even the most remote and
- 6:04previously resilient areas like Raja and
- 6:07pot and the Gulf of a lot have been hit
- 6:10and are seeing death with their corals.
- 6:13Right. So this isn't just a climate
- 6:14story. This is a biodiversity story. This
- 6:16is a food security story. This is a human
- 6:19story. This is affecting people across 82
- 6:22countries, maybe even more.
- 6:24Each bleaching event chips away at
- 6:26ecosystems that could take centuries to
- 6:29build. And unless we change our course,
- 6:32the next one may even come
- 6:34sooner and hit harder for longer.
- 6:37This is devastating to so many people
- 6:40around the world that depend on reefs for
- 6:42food and for security. Coral reefs are
- 6:45biodiversity hotspots that they contain
- 6:47about a third of the species
- 6:49in the ocean that we know of.
- 6:51There's probably a lot more, but they
- 6:52contain a third of the species that we
- 6:54know of. And so having coral reefs there
- 6:56are very important in particular coral
- 6:58reefs. So like what we call the reef
- 7:00building coral reefs, right? The corals.
- 7:02So the Staghorn, the branching corals,
- 7:05the Montipora, which is the flat corals,
- 7:07sort of the plate corals as they call
- 7:08them, right? Those types of corals are
- 7:10reef building. They build out those
- 7:12reefs. They provide those hiding spots
- 7:13that brings in the biodiversity of
- 7:16invertebrates and
- 7:17vertebrates like fish and so forth.
- 7:18Inverbers like crab shrimp and that kind
- 7:21of stuff that brings in all the big fish.
- 7:23It brings in the sharks. It brings in
- 7:24everything. It's this home that is a huge
- 7:28biodiversity hotspot, but it also
- 7:30provides security for the coastline. Back
- 7:32in 2004 when we had the tsunami on
- 7:35Christmas day, right? Christmas and
- 7:37boxing day in the Indian Ocean.
- 7:40They're affected Africa, affected South
- 7:41Asia, and it affected a lot of the
- 7:43islands in the Southeast Pacific. These
- 7:46places were devastated in the places that
- 7:48actually survived the best and did the
- 7:50best from a coastal resilient point of
- 7:52view had coral reefs that were intact,
- 7:55had seagrass beds that were intact, had
- 7:58mangroves that were intact.
- 8:00Meaning that they were up and running and
- 8:01they were healthy. A lot of places that
- 8:03didn't have those coral systems or
- 8:05seagrass systems or mangrove systems had
- 8:08huge losses of not only people, but just
- 8:11land because the water
- 8:12just went right over it.
- 8:14There was nothing to stop it. The coastal
- 8:16security that coral reefs provide is
- 8:19dissipation of energy from waves. That
- 8:21means if a tsunami wave comes over, it's
- 8:23got all this energy. It's got all this
- 8:25momentum and it hits a coral reef.
- 8:29All that coral reef with this branching
- 8:30corals and all these different areas, it
- 8:32provides resistance to the wave. So the
- 8:36energy, the speed and the power
- 8:38dissipates as it goes over the reef and
- 8:41then it'll dissipate again as it go over
- 8:43seagrass habitat and it'll dissipate
- 8:45again as it goes over mangrove habitat,
- 8:47especially when it starts to come on
- 8:48land. These mangroves are thick.
- 8:51If you've never tried to trek through a
- 8:53mangrove area without those nice
- 8:55boardwalks that sometimes people put
- 8:56through, it's almost impossible. So when
- 8:59a wave hits those, then it really
- 9:02dissipates the energy and it breaks up
- 9:04the waves and it's not as hard hit that
- 9:06city or village or towns that are behind
- 9:08there are not hardest hit.
- 9:10So that's what happened in 2004. But now,
- 9:14like even as bleaching events started to
- 9:16happen and it continues to happen longer
- 9:18and longer periods and getting worse and
- 9:20worse. So in 2014 to 2017, 60% of the
- 9:25corals around the world died. Now it's
- 9:2680% not recovering guys. This is not
- 9:29recovering very well.
- 9:31And what's going to happen over time is
- 9:33we're going to see a change in the makeup
- 9:35of corals. So we're going to get less of
- 9:37these hard corals, like the staghorn
- 9:39corals, the branching
- 9:40corals and the plate corals.
- 9:42And we're going to start to see more soft
- 9:44corals that maybe are a little bit more
- 9:45heat resistant. So let's get into why
- 9:48that's important to know. So when you
- 9:50look at a coral reef, right, it has this
- 9:53hard body a lot of the times or soft
- 9:55body, depending if it's
- 9:56hard coral or soft coral.
- 9:56But it has this body has this like
- 9:59skeleton and a lot of times like the hard
- 10:01corals are like a limestone skeleton. And
- 10:03over that skeleton, you have this fleshy
- 10:05material, which is the coral and that
- 10:07coral gets its food from this little tiny
- 10:11microscopic organism called a zoo and LA.
- 10:14It's basically an algae cell and many,
- 10:17many algae cells within this body within
- 10:19this kind of coral skeleton, if you will.
- 10:22And that algae gets its energy from the
- 10:26sun from photosynthesis. That's how it
- 10:27feeds and the byproducts of that is like
- 10:30calcium and other stuff. Right. And so
- 10:32that calcium helps build the coral reefs.
- 10:35It helps build the skeleton of that
- 10:37course with the fleshiness can stand on
- 10:38top and the food, it gets like the
- 10:40byproducts, it gets and it actually
- 10:41becomes a healthy coral. That's the
- 10:43simplistic version of the coral.
- 10:43And that's the simplistic version of how
- 10:45a coral eats and how it becomes so
- 10:47beautiful in the different colors and the
- 10:48radiant colors. It's the algae inside
- 10:51that reflect those colors, right? That's
- 10:53what we're seeing. Now, if the water gets
- 10:55too hot, those algae are like, I don't
- 10:57like it in here. I'm out of here. And
- 10:59they get expelled. Even the corals like,
- 11:01no, you got to go. It's getting too hot.
- 11:03I can't handle you in here. You got to
- 11:04go. I got to start looking at my body and
- 11:07starting to just contain it whatever I
- 11:09can. So it expels the zoo
- 11:11and LA into the water column.
- 11:12As long as the temperature stays that
- 11:14temperature, the corals like, no, I got
- 11:16to get rid of everything. So it loses its
- 11:18color. Eventually loses like the
- 11:20fleshiness of the coral around it. All
- 11:22the polyps, all those little polyps that
- 11:24feed and then the coral can't sustain
- 11:26itself. If the zoo, it like goes away for
- 11:29too long, then it won't come back and the
- 11:32coral dies because it has no way of
- 11:34feeding. If the temperature goes down and
- 11:36the zoo, I thought it comes back. These
- 11:38little algae cells come back.
- 11:40Then it can recover a little bit
- 11:43depending on how badly it's gone or how long it's been bleached. That's why you get the white bleaching is when the zoo and they are out, you lose the color is white. It's bleached. But when it comes back, it can be healthy again. Now we have to even go further down is looking at the different types of zoo and delay. Now the research that I've done a while ago is there's pretty much four different types. You got ABC and D will keep it as simplistic as possible. Now, certain zoo and delay will react at certain temperatures. That's why coral reefs, they're very important to the
- 12:10sea. They're very sensitive to outside
- 12:12changes. They don't like changes. If
- 12:14you've ever had a marine or ocean like or
- 12:17saltwater tank and you've had corals in
- 12:19there, you realize how important it is to
- 12:22keep the water at certain measurements,
- 12:24temperature has to stay within a certain
- 12:25range. PH has to stay within a certain
- 12:27range. The light has to be there for it
- 12:30and it can't be shaded by another rock or
- 12:33another coral or even algae that grows on top. It's very specific. And any time those values go out, they can be
- 12:40outside of that range. The coral is not
- 12:42healthy. So if you get the temperature
- 12:44that comes in and heats it up, then the
- 12:46zoo and I get expelled and that happens.
- 12:48So if it happens for over a long period
- 12:50of time, you're not going to get that zoo
- 12:52and deli back and you're going to get
- 12:54death to the coral going back to the
- 12:56different types of zoo and deli. They
- 12:58have different heat signatures. So
- 13:00different ranges of tolerance for heat.
- 13:03So if you think about it, and I don't
- 13:04know for sure. But if you think about a
- 13:06as the lowest range, so it's very
- 13:08specific. So if anything goes above or
- 13:10outside of that range by going higher or
- 13:13even lower, but in this case, it's going
- 13:14higher than those who went there, they
- 13:16were like, I'm out. We're gone. B is a
- 13:18little higher tolerance. C is a little
- 13:19higher tolerance and D is a little higher
- 13:21tolerance, right? And D is what people
- 13:23are looking at and really looking at what
- 13:25corals will like because certain corals
- 13:27like certain zoo and deli. They'll be
- 13:29benefiting more of the coral depending on
- 13:31the type of zoo and deli. So if you have
- 13:34D that only like soft corals and the D
- 13:36zoo and deli are going to be more heat
- 13:39tolerant to a higher temperature,
- 13:40then we're going to start to see more of
- 13:42these soft corals that like the zoo and
- 13:45deli that the type D zoo and deli around
- 13:47in the coral reefs. So we're going to see
- 13:48a change. But if the Staghorn like the
- 13:50branching or the plate corals like are
- 13:52there or the boulder corals like hard
- 13:54corals that are boulders. If they like
- 13:56the type A, which is the lowest range,
- 13:58then a higher temperature range is not
- 14:01going to be suitable for those types of
- 14:02corals. So essentially what's going to
- 14:04happen is we may not see the loss of
- 14:06corals completely, but we're definitely
- 14:09going to see a shift in the makeup.
- 14:10Of what the coral reefs will look like
- 14:13and that may affect what type of fish,
- 14:15what type of invertebrates are on these
- 14:18types of reefs, what protection it gives
- 14:20because there's a real difference between
- 14:22a soft coral and a hard coral. When you
- 14:24think about hiding spots, a soft coral is
- 14:26a little bit more permeable to moving
- 14:27around a hard call it breaks. It's hard.
- 14:30If you try to get in there, if you're
- 14:31fish trying to get like a crab or shrimp,
- 14:33it's very difficult to get in there. If
- 14:35these corals are, you know, not
- 14:37protecting or if these corals are soft,
- 14:38it's easier to get in. I can move it
- 14:40around with my fish.
- 14:40I can move it around with my snout or I
- 14:41can, you know, move it around with my
- 14:43jaw, whatever you need to do. But if it's
- 14:44hard, it's really difficult for some of
- 14:46these fish to get in there without
- 14:47getting cut or out getting damaged. So
- 14:49having that shift could pose a lot of
- 14:52problems and shift what we think coral
- 14:53reefs look like in the future. And that's
- 14:56where it becomes a problem. So if you
- 14:58think about it, we may not lose corals
- 15:00altogether, but we're going to lose the
- 15:02corals that we know and love and then
- 15:03provide the coral reef biodiversity as
- 15:06well as security for our coastal systems,
- 15:08which we need more and more
- 15:09and more as climate change.
- 15:10But change gets bigger. So what do we do?
- 15:13Andrew, you're telling me a lot of
- 15:14depressing stuff. What do we do? Look,
- 15:16we've gone through the problem. We're
- 15:17looking at the science, looking at the
- 15:19biology and the ecology. Now, what do we
- 15:21do? The biggest thing is we got to talk
- 15:24to our government officials. We got to
- 15:26say we need to lower down greenhouse
- 15:28gases and we need to do better when we're
- 15:31looking at this stuff, right? Because
- 15:32coral reefs are affected because the
- 15:34heat's rising because the greenhouse
- 15:35gases are going up and it's because of a
- 15:38lot of developed
- 15:39countries or industrialized
- 15:40countries who are providing that type of
- 15:42pollution or it's providing that type of
- 15:44greenhouse gas that's affecting the
- 15:46global temperatures. We need to reduce
- 15:48those. That's not a quick turnaround.
- 15:50It's not a short term solution. We need
- 15:52to do that as a long term solution, but
- 15:54we got to stop voting in these people who
- 15:56are in these governments that love to go
- 15:58against the grain and start calling
- 16:00climate changes a hoax. They don't know
- 16:02anything about science. They're not
- 16:03educated in science and they're not
- 16:06practical and they're not looking at
- 16:08renewable energies clean
- 16:10and clean and they're not
- 16:10going to be able to provide energy that
- 16:11will not provide CO2 or methane gases in
- 16:14the atmosphere. Everything else needs to
- 16:17change. We need to change the way we
- 16:19think we need to change the way we do
- 16:21life, which is not easy, but we're
- 16:22getting in trouble here, folks. We are in
- 16:24trouble. We're seeing wildfires. We're
- 16:26seeing droughts. We're seeing flooding.
- 16:28We're seeing tsunamis. We're seeing
- 16:29earthquakes. Volcanoes are increasing and
- 16:32that could be linked to climate change,
- 16:33which I'll cover in the next episode. We
- 16:35are seeing some problems and it's not
- 16:37going to go away. So we need to do
- 16:39something about it. If you love coral reefs, we need to do something about it.
- 16:40We need to reach the way they are. If you
- 16:41are a diver, if you are a surfer, if you
- 16:44just love the ocean and you want to see
- 16:46more of these corals, we need to act by
- 16:48speaking to your government
- 16:50representatives as a community, as a
- 16:53region, as a country, as a world
- 16:56population. We cannot take these
- 16:59governments that are in that are not
- 17:01doing anything about climate change. In
- 17:02fact, going backwards and making it
- 17:05worse. That's what we have to do and it's
- 17:08on us to make sure our governments do it.
- 17:10We need to vote them in and if they're
- 17:12not listening to us when they're voted
- 17:13in, get them out the next time you vote.
- 17:16I know it's a long period of time, but
- 17:18you gotta get them out because we are in
- 17:20peril. This is not a joke. This is not
- 17:23exaggerating. These coral reefs, 80% of
- 17:26them have died. Even the ones that are
- 17:28remote that we actually thought, hey, a
- 17:30few years ago, the ones that are remote
- 17:31actually do okay because there's less
- 17:33cumulative effects. I remember covering
- 17:35them on stories. Nope, not anymore. It's
- 17:38too much now. Too much, too
- 17:39high, too long, temporary.
- 17:40The temperature is just too much. So
- 17:44that's what we have to do. That's the
- 17:45call of action act. Speak to your
- 17:47government representatives and that's the
- 17:49episode for today. If you have any
- 17:50questions or comments, leave them in the
- 17:51comments below. If you're watching this
- 17:52on YouTube, if you're listening to this
- 17:54on audio podcast, which I love, because
- 17:56this is the way I started and I just
- 17:57continue to love it, please get ahold of
- 18:00me either, go to speakupforblue.com, hit
- 18:02the contact page, fill out the form that
- 18:04goes right to my personal email or you
- 18:06can go to Instagram. Hit me up on app,
- 18:09how to protect the ocean. That's it.
- 18:26That's it. I'm Andrew Lewis from the true
- 18:32north strong and free. Have a great day.
- 18:34We'll talk to you next
- 18:34time and happy conservation.