In August I surveyed and photographed the Plate Coral cascades on the inside wall of Honaunau Bay. At that time it looked like about 10 percent of the coral was bleached. Air temp was 86 degrees, water temp at depth was 84.2 degrees.
Today, September 30, 2019 I photographed the same coral cascades and other corals along the wall, westbound from the shallow Aloha sculpture. The bleaching, as you can see from the pics from today, is much more extensive, perhaps covering 60 percent of the plate corals. Water temps at depth were recorded on the same Suunto Vyper Novo as were temps in August, and the temps were the same: 84.2 degrees. There is also significant additional bleaching on the finger corals and lobe corals.
We attempted to swim out to the plate coral patch near the south west point of the bay but turned back before we were able to reach it.
Here are the photos from today.
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