Fiji has lost about 50% of the corals on our shallow reef areas due to coral bleaching- something which is of great concern for communities along the coast.

The world’s oceans continue to heat up from the combined impacts of El Nino and climate change.

Director Reef Explorer, Fiji Victor Bonito says reefs along Viti Levu’s coral coast have not been spared.

“The El-Nino this year on top of our slowly increasing sea water temperatures sort of pushed us over a really high temperature threshold. This is the worst bleaching that we’ve had experienced along the coral coast since Fiji experienced its first mass bleaching event back in 2000.”

Bonito fears the marine life that helped damaged corals to recover last time may be in decline and it is for this reason that Pacific nations need to take action to ensure their reefs remain sustainable.

Scientists estimate that half the coral in protected reefs around Fiji have been bleached.