Date: Mon, 27 Apr 98 17:06:35 GMT
From: watsonbooks@dial.pipex.com (Rick Watson)
Subject: Coral Bleaching, Seychelles
From: Rick Watson, London (watsonbooks@dial.pipex.com)

My wife and I were on Silhouette Island, Seychelles, 
April 6-21, our sixth trip to the island; our previous 
visit had been in August last year. We know the coral 
formations of the island well. On our recent visit we 
discovered extensive coral bleaching affecting all 
areas we explored. We snorkeled and dived at several 
points around the island, effectively a circumnavigation 
of the island covering most of its coral reefs and other 
formations to a depth of 22 metres. Every area was 
seriously affected: 80% plus suffered total bleaching, 
the remaining 20% was unhealthy. Many corals were 
starting to be covered with algae indicating total death 
of the coral. Corals affected were Acropora, Porites, 
Pocillopora, the fire corals, the leather and brain corals, 
and numerous others. There was no significant variation 
in terms of prevailing direction of the formation, 
although corals at Anse Patate, which faces east-southeast, 
were perhaps slightly less affected. We found out that this 
bleaching had all occurred recently,  approximately two 
months ago. I also dived at a point. c. 3 kilometres north 
of Silhouette where there is a large elevanted formation at 
28 metres depth. This also was seriously affected, but 
there were some small areas of only partially bleached 
corals (mainly Acroporas).  The dive instructor on the 
island told us that around the time the bleaching occurred, 
there was extensive floating material in the waters. He said 
that from the air it looked like an oil spill but was in fact 
fine reddish-brown particles like sawdust on the surface to 
a depth of about a meter. This was observed throughout 
the Seychelles. I don't know if there is any connection 
with the bleaching.