00:00Our planet's coral reefs have been in trouble for a while, with mass bleaching events becoming
00:07more common every year.
00:09However, after record-high ocean temperatures occurred all over the planet last year, experts
00:14now say that the fourth mass global bleaching event is underway, and it could spell doom
00:18for these natural wonders.
00:20Coral bleaching events occur when the marine invertebrates get stressed and expel the symbiotic
00:24algae within them.
00:26This causes them to turn white, an indicator of the problem, and they can survive if the
00:30algae returns.
00:31But that's not always the case.
00:32Here's the director of Coastal Oceans Research and Development, ecologist David Obura, to
00:37explain.
00:38So bleaching is like a fever in humans.
00:40We get a fever to resist a disease, and if the disease is not too much, we recover.
00:45But if it is too much, we die as a result.
00:47Coral exists primarily in extremely shallow waters around the planet as well.
00:51And shallow waters are far more susceptible to warming temperatures, meaning it's getting
00:55harder and harder for these reef systems to recover after a bleaching event.
00:59And coral scientist Lorenzo Alvarez-Felipe says it could take years before we see the
01:03full extent of the damage.
01:05What will happen is in the following years, depending on the species, the corals will
01:10start degrading because they are eroding.
01:14And this is when we will see the consequences.
01:17It might take even 10, 20 years to see these consequences.
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