The Reefs of Mauritius

The study investigated whether the coral reefs of Mauritius had suffered a mass bleaching event during 1998 as had been reported for other Indian Ocean reefs. Sea-surface temperature (SST) anomaly charts produced by NOAA show that SST was raised 1o C - 1.25o C above the climatological maximum for this region during February 1998, but the extent of bleaching around Mauritius was thought not to be severe, but was not recorded. A rapid assessment of the degree of coral bleaching on reefs around the whole coast of Mauritius was made during April 1999. Surveys were conducted while snorkelling and SCUBA diving and assessments made by direct observation, underwater video transects and underwater photography. Video was analysed to confirm the results from the field surveys. Results were displayed within a Geographical Information System (GIS). Meteorological data for the period between January 1997 and April 1999 were also analysed. The results indicate that the coral reefs in Mauritius were still healthy, but that all sites showed some signs of degradation particularly from boat and anchor damage and cyclone damage. The coral reefs of Mauritius do appear to have escaped the mass bleaching event of 1998. There were no large areas of dead standing coral other than on Barrier Reef off Mahebourg. Mean bleaching was <10% at all sites and in all cases represented only partial bleaching of colonies. It is suggested that Mauritius escaped the mass bleaching event due to the effect of cyclone Anacelle, which produced wet and cloudy unsettled weather during February 1998. The minor bleaching episode observed during this survey is thought to be a frequent and normal event relating to large environmental fluctuations experienced within the lagoons. With the potential threat of increasing mass coral bleaching events, it is suggested that Mauritius needs to act quickly to protect its coral reefs from further degradation.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Daby, D., Hardman, E., Turner, J., Persands, S., Klaus, R., Fagoonee, I., Baghooli, R.
Format:	Preprint biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	2000
Subjects:	Coral reefs,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/1834/453
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