Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1998 20:19:45 -0500
From: Vince Perez on the Road <vperez@singnet.com.sg>
Subject: Coral Bleaching in the PHILIPPINES

I found the various emails from divers reporting coral bleaching in
various spots in the Philippines, possibly caused by warm weather.

Vincent S. Perez
Trustee, World Wildlife Fund-Philippines

I just came back from a dive trip in Moal Boal, Cebu yesterday.  Traces 
of coral bleaching are present in Pescador Island. Temperature at avg 
depth of 20m was 30'C for two days (weather was overcast).  Sunken 
Island, whose reef begins at 30m, has so far been spared but I noticed that 
temperature at 30 to 45m was close to Pescador at 29'C.  Worst hit seems 
to be White Sands and Tublig (?, I'm not sure if I got the name of this spot 
correctly) where rows upon rows of corals have already turned white.  
These are shallow dives and the waters here were really warm.

At Pescador, we noticed that the 3-4 resident white tips which you would 
usually see at 45m were absent, save for a small one, and the usual snappers 
and sweet lips normally found in abundance were fewer.  I would estimate 
the affected areas in these dive spots to be 3%, nil so far, 20%, and 25% for 
Pescador, Sunken Island, White Sands and Tublig, respectively.

Joel

Original Message from vperez@mnl.sequel.net @ HUB on 09/03:


From: "karina" <karina@artbridges.com>
Subject: Coral Bleaching is definitely happening - any solutions?

Divers have noticed coral bleaching in Anilao, Sorsogon, Palawan etc..


Karina Escudero

From: "Boy Siojo" <boydive@pacific.net.ph>

We just came from a dive cruise which covered  the areas of Busuanga-Apo 
Reef-Puerto Galera-and Verde island. A phenomena  called Coral Bleaching 
is present.  From what I know the color of the corals come from specific 
bacteria living with a specific coral (please feel free to correct any mistakes 
that I may make). These bacteria are at the same time a major food  source 
of the coral itself. The corals and the bacteria, as in any living  organism on this 
earth, have a certain amount of tolerance for changes in the  temperature of their 
environment.   For those of you who have been diving regularly  the past few 
months, haven't you noticed that the water temperature has been  unusually warm. 
Wetsuits should be the order of the day when diving in Anilao  during these 
months and yet we have been diving without suits.  The first dive of our first day 
was to a wreck called Kyokozan Maru. The ship lies in about 130 ft. of water 
with the deck being at 90 ft. The first thing that struck me was the wreck was white! 
As I descended I noticed that all the encrusting corals have turned white, and so  
did the mushroom corals and even the anemone at the railing near the pilot house  
has turned white.  Our next dive spot was Coconongin Point, about  one hour away 
from the wreck, as soon as we went in I knew that the wreck was  not an isolated 
case. There were dead soft corals everywhere, the hump and brain  corals (porites 
species) and the staghorn and table corals (acropora species)  have all turned white. 
Anywhere you looked there was this prevailing whiteness,  it was just incredible.   
Our next spot was the house reef of Club  Paradise, and it was almost the same as 
Coconongin Point. Apo Reef, Puerto  Galera and Verde are also affected by this 
phenomena. At first I thought the  phenomena was localized, but from what we have 
seen I think that it may be the  whole of the Philippines that may be affected.  When 
water temperatures change the bacteria  living in the corals are the first to be affected. 
Once they die the corals soon follow.  One of our divers had a watch with a 
thermometer, and he said that the average temperature that his watch recorded during 
our dive at San Agapito Point  was 30 degrees celsius. The threshold of the Corals 
are 32 degrees celsius. In  Club Paradise they had some scientists over a couple of 
weeks back and they  measured it at 35 degrees celsius at 60 ft. depth!!!!  That is way 
too  hot.  We may soon see this coral bleaching start in  Anilao.

. Thank you.  Boy

 eOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3

Guys,

The weekend before the cruise I went to Mainit and at that time it was not as 
Bobby describes it now.

Boy
----------------------------------------------------------
Boy,
I am sorry to hear about the conditions you encountered at Club Paradise.
The Diving there is one of the reasons that I finally decided to get into 
Photography. I was in Anilao last weekend and sad to say had encountered 
the same conditions at Mainit Point.  As we approached the site one of the 
divers asked what are those white patches underwater, at first I thought it 
must be patches of sand. As we descended I noticed that those white patches 
were staghorn corals bleached white, even some of the soft corals that are 
normally color flesh where white!!, visibility was so bad about 10 - 15 feet 
only, and yes the temperature was warm.  Could not say whether the corals 
in the deeper areas are affected as vis was really bad. But it did not seem that  
the deeper part of the reef was affected.  We did our first dive at Larry's on 
Sunday morning, don't think this reef is affected as yet.  

Cheers,
Bobby S.B.

Dear Boy,

The coral bleaching is something I have noticed as well in the last few months 
around the Sorsogon area, Ticao Island, Masbate, Albay gulf (Rapu Rapu & 
Santo Domingo). These areas happen to be volcanic & may have higher 
temperatures due to volcanic gases. However, in Coron - same thing... I was at 
Fuga Island in the Babuyan Islands, last weekend & the water was so warm I 
dove wearing a swimsuit, this is totally unheard of in this area where 3-5 mil 
suits are appropriate. The humpback whales also failed to migrate thru the 
Babuyan area this year. They usually migrate thru the area on May and August. 
I will make some inquiries from ICLARM on what can possibly be done to help 
the situation.  Guys, more signs that we ought to take care of our planet.. Keep me posted.

Karina