A note on the coral bleaching. I talked with Lynn at the Dive Center during the managers reception. She said about 18 months ago (not long after they arrived) there was an El Nino and water temperatures soared to 33 degrees. (Someone else told me 39, but that source is less trust worthy, I think). Bleaching started immediately. (Two years ago, I noted and took pictures of some bleaching of corals at the house reef; mainly the tips of branching corals.) Two weeks after that, the corals began dying and sliding to the bottom of the reefs. What I noticed were that branching and plate corals were mainly affected. Boulder types of coral seemed in better shape.

Coral provides habitat for species, especially as nurseries. Certain species are dependent on coral for food (parrotfish for example). Life in the ocean environment is interdependent. It is unclear what impact the destruction of living corals will have on the ocean, but I can't imagine it's good.

There are fast growing corals, but most corals grow at the rate of millimeters a year. That means that the coral lost in the recent El Nino will not regenerate in our life times.

We visited many sites with gorgeous soft corals (which grow quickly). Those seem to grow mostly on overhangs. The tops of reefs which were gorgeous two years ago are now almost completely barren.

Besides extreme water warming, overfishing is a huge cause of reef destruction. In Grand Cayman, almost all grouper has been fished out. The government passed restrictions on fishing, but gave a year for implementation. In that year, almost all the grouper was gone. As a result, damsel fish (fine dining for groupers) have proliferated. The problem is that damsels farm green stringy algae which destroys corals by covering them and preventing the algae which live inside the corals from receiving sunlight for the photosynthesis of foods which the corals then consume. Deprived of the algae, the corals die off.

I have been noting coral die offs since I've been diving in the Indo Pacific. Most of what I've seen until two weeks ago is gradual, minor bleaching (tips of branching corals). What I have seen in the Maldives is devastating. I don't know if the oceans can recover until our species manages to drive itself to extinction. If then.