The maps from NOAA on coral mortality risks worldwide had to be revised: faced with the devastation caused by unusually warm water, three new alert levels have been created, including a « risk of total mortality »!
The situation in the oceans is so serious that NOAA, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had to revise its alert levels on its maps dedicated to coral mortality risk. There were previously five levels: one corresponding to the good health of corals, then those of moderate risk, caution, alert level, and then level 2 (which equates to a risk of mortality for the most sensitive species).
But coral bleaching reached such proportions in 2023 that NOAA added not one additional level, but three: level 3 alert (risk of mortality for several species), level 4 alert (risk of mortality for at least 50% of the corals in the area concerned), and level 5 alert (almost total risk of mortality for the various species present, at least 80%)!
The cause is the record heat of the water in recent months, which « causes damage equivalent to a category 5 hurricane in the affected areas, » according to NOAA. This extreme heat in the seas and oceans of the world had a surprising and devastating consequence in 2023: corals died rapidly without even having time to bleach, an event « that scientists would never have imagined 10 years ago, » the U.S. agency said.
