Coral

[stuandchris]

Was talking to a dive boat operator and he said that nearly all of the coral around Phuket has been bleached, it looks lovely but algae will invade it soon.

It will take years for the coral to recover apparently.

Can anyone confirm this and offer reasons?

He thinks the recent hot weather has heated the water too much but that is only an opinion.

[stevenl]

The seas all over the area have been exrremely hot, so there is coral bleaching happening everywhere, including eg sri lanka.

At the moment it looks like racha yai has been hardest hit, still nice divung though, but we'll have to wait and see.

[LadyinRed]

This could be due to the El Nino/ Nina, but I haven't got any sources to back it up.

As I remembered last time when bleaching happened nearly 8 years ago, the bleached corals did recover.

There's too many factors to consider, and I am no expert.

[starkey_rich]

Article in the Gazette last month.

Phuket NEWS Hound: Phuket hit by coral bleaching

[ScubaBuddha]

All the coral in Racha Yai is dead. I haven't been to other sites for a couple months so I don't know. A couple weeks ago I was getting surface temp readings of 33.7c on my dive computer. So warm it's almost uncomfortable. Usually it's around 26-28. This is the first time in 9 years here I am diving without a wetsuit.

[ScubaBuddha]

All the coral in Racha Yai is dead. I haven't been to other sites for a couple months so I don't know. A couple weeks ago I was getting surface temp readings of 33.7c on my dive computer. So warm it's almost uncomfortable. Usually it's around 26-28. This is the first time in 9 years here I am diving without a wetsuit.

After re-reading my comment and talking to some experts, I should really modify this to be more accurate and say, yes, they are pretty much all all bleached white and blue, but that does not mean they are dead. And now the water is cooling so if the polyps can recover we might be OK. The fish are all still there, and actually the white and blue coral is quite beautiful.