CIMH says bleach warming is present in the Caribbean

The Barbados-based Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) says bleach warming level heat stress is present in the southwest Caribbean and with a high probability that it will reach or exceed several alert levels.

In the first issue of the Caribbean Coral Reef Watch Bulletin for 2024, it said that for the four-month period May to August, there is “a high probability, that heat stress will reach/exceed Alert Levels 1 and 2 in the west and southwest Caribbean basin, and around Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago, and Grenada.”

It said bleaching warning-level heat stress is present in the south-west Caribbean.

Since early 2023, mass bleaching of coral reefs has been confirmed throughout the tropics, including in Florida; the Caribbean; Brazil; the eastern Tropical Pacific Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and other countries.

Meanwhile, the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says predictions pose a daunting future, where even the most conservative estimates suggest mass coral bleaching could occur annually on the majority of coral reefs worldwide by 2050.