There will be massive coral bleaching in Fiji’s economic exclusive zone until February 2021, says the Fiji Meteorological Service.
“The 12 weeks coral bleaching outlook is at ‘alert level 1’ in large area of Fiji waters, said Fiji Met in its outlook last week.
“The eight weeks outlook at ‘warning’ in Northern parts of Fiji’s EEZ and at ‘alert’ in rest of the Fiji waters.”
The four weeks coral bleaching outlook is at “alert” in the northern parts of Fiji’s EEZ with “no stress” in the rest of Fiji waters.
Coral bleaching occurs when seawater is too warm and corals release an algae known as zooxanthellae living in their tissues, causing the coral to turn completely white.
Fiji Met said in its outlook that above normal sea surface temperature is predicted in most of the Fiji waters during December 2020, January 2021 and February 2021.
