Diseases

Bleaching as a disease

A year 2000 report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network concluded that 27% of the world’s coral reefs were “effectively lost”. The single largest cause was the El Nino-related warming event of 1997-98, which destroyed 16% in 9 months. The remaining 11% were lost to sediment and nutrient pollution, over-fishing and mining of sand and rock.

The same report concluded that a further 14% of the world’s reefs are in “critical stage”, with loss expected in 2-10 years.A further 18% of reefs are threatened by loss in10-30 years.