Barbados Coral Reefs Face Threats Amid Global Bleaching Crisis: CZMU and UWI Conduct Extensive Survey

Barbados’ coral reefs are in serious trouble, even as officials try to restore their health and protect them from a deadly heat wave that has decimated them worldwide.

Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) Leo Brewster said his department in collaboration with the University of the West Indies has been closely monitoring the situation through a just-ended five-year coral reef survey.

Though an analysis of the survey is yet to be completed, it is expected to shed some light on the changing conditions of the island’s coral reef system over the period.

The stakes are high, given the outsized importance of coral reefs to islands like Barbados. Corals are living organisms in intricate city-like structures that provide critical habitats, food chains, and breeding grounds for countless species of fish and other marine life.

Beyond their huge ecological value, coral reefs play vital unseen roles in the island’s economy, from helping to protect coastlines to sustaining fishing and tourism. Now, these delicate ecosystems are facing unprecedented threats from climate change with mass bleaching events devastating reefs worldwide.

In the US, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers have raised an alarm following a discovery that the world is experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event, caused by abnormally high ocean temperatures.

The NOAA reported that mass bleaching has been identified in at least 53 countries over the past year.

Reef bleaching, which occurs when the water in which they live becomes too warm, has also been a concern to Barbados since 2023, Brewster confirmed.

“We were hit quite hard on the majority of our reef with the bleaching and we’re noticing now that the water temperatures are still very warm this time of year. We have a coral reef early warning buoy that monitors the temperature and it has been showing that where the water should be cooler now, it is much warmer than it ought to be,” he told Barbados TODAY.

Brewster added that there was a heightened concern as summer approaches as the continuous intensification of the heat on the waters will have significant implications for the recovery of the reef system and its ability to withstand storm waves, especially during the hurricane season.

The CZMU director said the reefs are also being threatened by groundwater pollution off the island. This increases the presence of turf algae in the underwater ecosystem, resulting in oxygen depletion or diseases.