Bleached corals. Photo © Julien Wickel MARE
Reef managers have important roles to play before, during, and after coral bleaching events. During this webinar, Project Manager James Mbugua from Coastal Oceans Research and Development – Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa provided a bleaching forecast for the Western Indian Ocean in 2022 and shared tools and resources tailored toward the region for predicting and responding to bleaching. Dr. Marie Smith, Marine Remote Sensing Specialist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), shared relevant satellite products that can be used to predict bleaching in the region. We also heard from local manager Dadley Tsiganyiu, the Kenya Wildlife Service Warden at Watamu Marine Park, on how they apply bleaching alert and monitoring data to respond to local bleaching events. The presentations were followed by an open question-and-answer session.
Access the PDF of resources mentioned during the webinar.
Thank you to all who participated in the survey to help shape the content of our webinar series about forecasting and responding to coral bleaching. A second webinar, tailored to a different region, will be held later in 2022.
The Allen Coral Atlas has launched a satellite-imagery-based global monitoring system for coral reefs, bringing new hope to conservation efforts. To learn more, please watch the video below. It shows how the Atlas bleaching monitoring system works, how to visualize it, and how marine managers and practitioners can help with the data validation process. If you monitor coral bleaching anywhere in the world, we would greatly appreciate your participation in this collaborative effort to bring together a Global Coral Bleaching Network via this survey.
