Climate Change-Induced Coral Bleaching in Malvan Marine Sanctuary, Maharashtra, India

Malvan Marine Sanctuary (MMS), Maharashtra, India is rich in coral reefs and the associated resources, which provide livelihood for the people involved in fishing and tourism. The elevated sea-surface temperature triggered by climate change had caused the coral reefs around the world to undergo severe bleaching during 2014–2016. Scientists have declared this as the third global coral bleaching event. Two underwater surveys during December 2015 and May 2016 were conducted in MMS to assess the intensity and trend of coral bleaching. A high prevalence of coral bleaching, i.e. 70.93% (SD = 4.53) was recorded inside MMS during December 2015, with a mortality of about 8.38% (SD = 0.91). After a lapse of six months, corals were found to recover. This is borne out by the reduction in the bleaching prevalence to 6.77 ± 0.12% during May 2016. Climate change being a global issue, reduction in the local stressors such as fishing and tourism is highly recommended in order to allow the corals to recover and enable sustainable utilization of coral reef resources around MMS.