predicted.
Since December 2023, coral bleaching has been reported at Palmyra Atoll in the Northern Line Islands, with newer reports (January and February 2024) showing more extensive bleaching, mortality, and algal overgrowth (Photo Collage 1). Extensive bleaching was also observed in Tuvalu, Kiribati, and Fiji as of February 2024, with reports from Funafuti of 70% of the corals "gone" inside the lagoon. In March 2024, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Marine Science, completed aerial surveys of 300 reef areas and confirmed a widespread, mass coral bleaching event. In the eastern Pacific, in Costa Rica, different coral restoration groups also reported 50-80% bleaching on reefs they surveyed.
