By Mark Gray
4:00pm PDT, Apr 18, 2024
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Oceans are losing their color due to a "major global event" called coral reef bleaching.
Top reef scientists have declared that reefs across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans have been bleached white by rising water temperatures. Once vibrant reefs are rapidly paling all over the world. Coral reef bleaching — which is caused by heat stress — has been confirmed in at least 53 countries, territories or local economies from February 2023 to April 2024. Coral can die if bleaching is severe and long-lasting.
Coral reefs are important to ecosystems that sustain underwater life, and their death could have a domino effect.
This is Earth's fourth global bleaching event on record.
As seen here, in 2019, a diver was photographed checking on the bleached coral reefs along the Society Islands in French Polynesia.
Keep reading to see what bleaching has done to other previously vibrant coral reefs…
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A major bleaching of the coral reefs off the coast of the Society Islands in French Polynesia can be seen on May 9, 2019.
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An injured sea turtle swims near different types of coral including a small patch of transplanted elkhorn coral that is bleached along with soft corals in Islamorada, Florida, on July 24, 2023.
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Divers inspect the coral reefs off the coast of the Society Islands in French Polynesia on May 9, 2019.
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A major bleaching of the coral reefs off the coast of the Society Islands in French Polynesia can be seen on May 9, 2019.
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A major bleaching of the coral reefs off the coast of the Society Islands in French Polynesia can be seen on May 9, 2019.
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The tips of this Staghorn coral show signs of distress and "white death" from the hot water temperature in the Florida keys in Islamorada, Florida, on July 24, 2023.
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A major bleaching of the coral reefs off the coast of the Society Islands in French Polynesia can be seen on May 9, 2019.
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The coral at Alligator Reef in Islamorada, Florida, shows signs of bleaching on July 24, 2023, that had not been present only a week earlier.
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The Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia, has again been hit with widespread bleaching — seen here on March 7, 2022.
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A partially bleached mound coral sits on the reef floor after a mass bleaching event at Cheeca Rocks Reef in Islamorada, Florida, on Oct. 5, 2023.
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A partially bleached mound coral sits on the reef floor after a mass bleaching event at Cheeca Rocks Reef in Islamorada, Florida, on Oct. 5, 2023.
