The coral around Bon Island and Rawai has been turning white for the last week or so. In the 15 years I have been crossing the sea from mainland Phuket to the islands I have never seen this before and it is apparently the worst for 20 years. If the water temperature doesn't cool down soon the coral may die. In the above photograph bleached coral can be seen as white patches where before the coral reef could be seen as a dark shadow beneath the water. Small corals that are exposed to the sun at low water will be in the most danger especially when bleaching has already occurred.
Further information about coral bleaching can be seen at:
http://coris.noaa.gov/activities/reef_managers_guide/reef_managers_guide.pdf an informative illustrated guide to coral automatically downloading 5.4MB pdf file.
or a variety of information at any of the following links:
http://www.reefbase.org/global_database/default.aspx?section=t4®ion=&country=
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/cleo/coral_bleaching.shtml
http://www.science.org.au/nova/076/076key.htm
April has passed and May draws to an end. Phuket has had very little rainfall and so temperatures remain high. It's just a matter of waiting and hoping that the coral will survive. A video taken recently at Racha Island can be seen at the following link, and according to the divers things are looking better.
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