SOURCE: Earther
DATE: November 8, 2017
SNIP: Last week, scientists reported that half of Hawaii’s coral reefs suffered serious bleaching in 2014 and 2015 as part of an ongoing, three-year global bleaching event that researchers are still trying to get a handle on. Hawaii is home to some of the most spectacular reefs in the U.S., which bring in around $800 million a year in revenue.
Around 56 percent of the Big Island’s corals bleached, along with 44 percent on West Maui and 32 percent of the reefs around Oahu according to an Associated Press report.
“In the 2030s, 30 to 50 percent of the years will have major bleaching events in Hawaii,” Kuulei Rogers, a scientist at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, told the AP.