NOAA: Coral bleaching has gone global for the third time ever

NOAA: Coral bleaching has gone global for the third time ever,
October 8, 2015,
By Michael Casey,
Fox News Science,

Coral bleaching brought on by record ocean temperatures is hitting reefs around the world, prompting NOAA scientists to issue the third ever global bleaching event.

The alert comes after bleaching first hit Pacific reefs in 2014, moved onto reefs in the Indian Ocean and Hawaii earlier this year and recently started expanding to the Caribbean and threatening coral in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, NOAA scientists said. Coral bleaching also began in the Florida Keys and South Florida in August and NOAA estimates that by the end of 2015, almost 95 percent of U.S. coral reefs will have been exposed to ocean conditions that can cause corals to bleach.