00:00Global warming and by extension the warming of the ocean is having a
00:04devastating effect on our coral reefs in Tobago. Since 2010 the coral cover was
00:09about 30% which is still relatively you know doing okay. Unfortunately after that
00:16bleaching event we immediately saw a drop to an average coral cover of 15%
00:21which means it's a loss of 50% of coral cover from that single bleaching event.
00:26Ganesh was presenting at a webinar on the status of a 2024 mass coral bleaching
00:32event and implications for Tobago. The United States National Oceanic and
00:38Atmospheric Administration issues alerts when temperatures exceed the expected
00:43threshold. Then the IMA and TNT calls out to its partners. It is necessary that we
00:50communicate with the marine resource users and find out hey y'all are diving
00:55every week you know can you please tell us what's happening underwater and so we
01:00get responses we sent out a call through social media through our CIT app and we
01:09give phone calls as well to people that we work closely with in Tobago. Once we
01:15get enough you know concern enough reports of bleaching then it's time for
01:21us to go and check it for ourselves. Water temperatures of one degree
01:25Celsius above the expected summertime maximum temperature is said to be
01:30stressful for corals. In Tobago the mountainous star coral make up about
01:35half of the coral cover. They were the highest hits in Castara almost every
01:41single one was bleached. Angel Reef, Melville Drift, they were severely
01:48impacted right and so if you equate that there because they're the biggest
01:52contributors they're currently in a state they're extremely vulnerable to
01:56mortality. The bold upbring coral in Tobago waters has been the largest in
02:02the Western Hemisphere. They were all white right so we did see Melville Drift
02:09is probably one of the most pristine sites and it just shows that the thermal
02:15stress did not discriminate. It is off on St. Giles Island, it is remote, it is not
02:20impacted by land-based pollution and it was simply the heat stress that resulted
02:26in bleaching of all the colonies there. And recovery is very slow about 1.5
02:33percent every 10 years. The latest IUCN report shows that they've updated the
02:40IUCN red list for many of our coral species and it shows that up to 40 to 50
02:46percent of our species are at risk of extinction. What is needed this expert
02:52says is legislation to protect species, more funding and a suitable restoration
02:58plan. The type of restoration that we're looking at is assisted fertilization
03:03which means that we are trying to get the corals to well boost the corals
03:10genetic diversity so they have different population of future population of
03:15different traits that can naturally respond to these heat waves through
03:19their genetics. Once corals die, reefs rarely come back and with few surviving
03:24corals they struggle to reproduce and entire reef ecosystems on which people
03:31and wildlife depend deteriorate. Urvashi Tewari, Rupnirayan TV 6 News
