Brazil is bracing for what may be its worst-ever coral bleaching event, as extremely warm water temperatures have damaged reefs in the country’s largest marine reserve.

“We are observing the situation of coral bleaching, very intense bleaching,” said Pedro Pereira, coordinator of the non-profit Reef Conservation Project.
“For every hundred colonies of coral, we imagine, over 80 per cent of them are bleached.”

Global reefs are suffering the fourth mass bleaching event in three decades, but researchers had hoped Brazil would be spared as they had been in previous global bleaching events.

Huge swaths of coral have turned bone white along Brazil’s vast Atlantic coastline, threatening the region’s tourism and fishing revenue.

Sea temperatures have smashed records in the last year as climate change intensifies the El Nino phenomenon that normally warms the globe every six or seven years.

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