Coral Recovery From Bleaching in Seychelles

Abstract

Digital video transects were filmed at nine coral reef locations around Mahe in March 1997, and at 14 locations including additional sites in Curieuse, Coco, La Digue, and Cousin in May1998 as part of at he Seychelles Marine Park Authority Monitoring program. This report describes preliminary observations made at 16 locations, including most of the previous sites and some new ones during early December1998. The first series of videos recorded the condition of the coral reef prior to the impact of coral bleaching, the second recorded conditions during the intense coral bleaching event of early 1998, and the current observations record conditions in the aftermath of the event, allowing the first accurate estimates of overall mortality and survivorship and of the differences in them between habitats. Due to lack of time and bad weather it was unfortunately not possible to re-film the sites around Curieuse, Cousin, and La Digue, however some new sites were examined near Mahe, and additional sites in the Amirantes will be covered in a separate report. This report contains preliminary field notes, and much more detailed quantitative information on coral species abundance, survival, and mortality will be available after the digital videos are analyzed. All three series of observations will be contrasted in more detail in a longer study to be published in a forthcoming IUCN volume of bleaching studies from around the world to be edited by T. Goreau, T.McClanahan, andR. Ormond.