00:00 Coral reefs are beneficial for food, including fishing, tourism, recreation, coastal protection,
00:06 and medicine.
00:08 Algae live in the tissues of the coral host, and when those algae leave, the host corals
00:13 lose their beautiful colors and turn white.
00:16 This is known as coral bleaching.
00:18 Climate change, which factors in global warming, resulting in warmer oceans, is a major factor
00:24 of mass coral bleaching.
00:26 The Paris Agreement is intended on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
00:32 Coral reef ecologist Dr. Angénie Ganaisse, who works at the Institute of Marine Affairs,
00:36 says if that occurs, there would be a further loss of 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs, and
00:42 if warming gets up to 2 degrees Celsius, this would result in the possible loss of 99 percent
00:49 of reefs.
00:50 With temperatures presently at 1.2 degrees Celsius globally, Dr. Ganaisse calls the situation
00:56 dire, and she provides the projections for Tobago.
00:59 It is likely that by 2040 to 2050, we're going to get annual severe bleaching effects.
01:07 So you're going to get severe bleaching on an annual basis on most of our sites, with
01:12 the exception of a few of our reef areas, which is the area in green, which are likely
01:17 to experience ASE in the decade after.
01:21 Prolonged bleaching eventually causes corals to become diseased or die.
01:26 According to Dr. Ganaisse, in 2010, it was recorded that 50 percent of coral cover in
01:32 Tobago was lost, and low-level bleaching has been consistently occurring in the past three
01:37 years.
01:38 The 2020 bleach trajectory is very similar to that of 2010, so we do expect a lot of
01:45 bleaching and a lot of coral mortality as a result.
01:49 In fact, our bleaching alerts started two months earlier than the previous years, where
01:56 we would get bleaching watch alerts in August.
01:58 This year, we got them in June.
02:00 A multi-pronged approach is being taken to address coral bleaching, including alerts,
02:05 monitoring, reporting, adaptative measures, and plans for recovery.
02:10 But among the things being labeled vital for this country are fisheries management and
02:15 pollution management.
02:17 So we've had the integrated coastal zoning policy passed only two months ago, and we
02:22 have a 10-year plan for implementation to improve that, but a lot needs to be done in
02:28 very little time.
02:29 You need cross-sector collaboration.
02:31 You need, you know, we need to work with WASTA, we need to work with the Water Sewage Authority,
02:36 we need to work with agriculture.
02:38 So there needs to be a lot of coastal zone and watershed management that needs to happen.
02:44 The IMA is also looking into other initiatives.
02:47 Biologist at the Perry Institute for Marine Science in the Bahamas, Dr. Valeria Pizarro,
02:53 is highlighting what she says is a key aspect to any initiative on prevention of coral degradation
02:59 and restoration.
03:01 You in every single solution, you have to involve community, yeah, social knowledge,
03:07 but you have to involve as well industry and especially tourism.
03:12 Like tourism, it's a key for our countries.
03:16 We actually depend and live from tourism.
03:19 So it's how we can reduce the, tourism has an impact.
03:25 I'm not going to be like, it's not, they're not like the best, but they can be very, they
03:31 can contribute so much if you know how to do it.
03:35 Apart from the availability of funding and investment propelled through the United Nations
03:40 focus on coral restoration, experts say more education is crucial moving forward and governments
03:46 in the Caribbean need to work together as the problems being experienced are similar.
03:52 Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
03:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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