Day 4 of diving here in beautiful Moorea and the reef has less bleaching than expected which is fantastic news! The temperatures here are a bit above average and nearing the bleaching threshold for the corals, but luckily there is no widespread bleaching, at least in the area where we are diving along the north shore fore reef.
However, we are seeing an increase in the prevalence of coral disease...
... in addition to a large increase in the number of Crown of Thorns starfish which eat the coral (and a lot of it!):
Sadly, overall, the reefs aren't looking as healthy as they have in the past - but there is still high coral cover and a high density of fish which is good! Regardless, it is always a pleasure to dive on these reefs.
I have been taking a lot of GoPro videos on the dives we have done so far - but I am still working on editing them into something short that I can upload.
In the meantime, I took an Olympus Tough digital camera out today (which is particularly good at macro photography) and tried to capture some of the interesting textures that caught my eye. Here is a quick blog to share some of these photos of the reef with you. I hope you enjoy these sights as much as I do.
