During the peak hot period of April and early May 2024, OnBird’s observation detected a large-scale coral bleaching event occurring in Phu Quoc.<\/p>\n
The mass coral bleaching event, the second in the past decade, comes amid relentlessly rising global sea temperatures. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA<\/a>) and the International Coral Reef Initiative\u2019s (ICRI<\/a>) global network of coral reef scientists have announced that the world is currently experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event, the second in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n This year, under the influence of El Ni\u00f1o, temperatures have peaked, with water temperatures consistently measured at around 32\u00b0C at depths of 1-2 meters, far exceeding the current adaptive temperature range of corals, which is 23-29\u00b0C in Phu Quoc waters. Currently, the OnBird team continues to collect data and images through underwater surveys to provide a more comprehensive view of this event in the early summer months: April and May in Phu Quoc<\/p>\n As of the May 15th update, numerous bleached or undergoing bleaching states were recorded in many coral colonies, including Porite Lueta corals and Broccoli corals.<\/p>\n Based on our historical data over ten years, the warmest water on this day in Phu Quoc was recorded in 2016 and was 31.8\u00b0C, it was a serious bleaching event, OnBird believes that this coral bleaching event will have more severe consequences than previous ones. This is because the coral reefs in Phu Quoc are already in a state of degradation due to natural and human impacts, including tourism activities and fishing, consuming important seafood species such as dotted grouper, sentinel crab, sea urchins, squid eggs, and small fish. This has severely weakened the reef’s ability to recover after bleaching events.<\/p>\n Recalling the 2008 bleaching event, which within nearly two months led to the near disappearance of the entire coral reef at Hon Roi.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n