2015, Coral Beaching and Mortality in Malvan, India

Malvan Marine Sanctuary (MMS) in Maharashtra, along the Arabian sea coast has been bestowed with good amount of corals. Because of the elevated sea surface temperature, high intensity of coral bleaching (70.93±4.53%) was witnessed inside MMS during December 2015 which killed 8.38±0.91% of corals. Totally 11 genera of corals were found bleached which are Pavona, Coscinaraea, Goniastrea, Favites, Favia, Cyphastrea, Leptastrea, Montastrea, Turbinaria, Goniopora and Porites. During May 2016, the intensity of bleaching had come down to 6.77±0.12% and the corals started recovering. Sea surface temperature ranged between 29.4 and 29.8⁰ C during December 2015.