2024 brought the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, only narrowly surpassing the record set in 2023. The trend, driven largely by human-caused climate change, according to NASA, caused the worst bleaching event on record among delicate coral populations around the world. This includes the Caribbean Sea, home to the Mesoamerican Reef, the longest barrier reef in the Western Hemisphere. The latest instalment of the Mesoamerican Reef Report Card, a periodic health assessment, finds that the 2024 bleaching event reduced the reef’s coral cover. But though the overall health of the Mesoamerican Reef remains “poor,” its health actually improved for the first time in five years, a positive development the report attributes to an increase in fish populations due to effective enforcement of fisheries rules. The Mesoamerican Reef stretches 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. It is considered a biodiversity hotspot and features more than 60 types of corals and more than 500 fish species, along with endangered sea turtles and the world’s largest congregation of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus). This biodiversity attracts millions of tourist divers every year. Nearly 2 million people also depend on the reef for their livelihoods. The Mesoamerican Reef Report Card is the result of a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation effort by Healthy Reefs for Healthy People, an international partnership program to assess and protect the region’s coral reefs. The group released the first report card in 2008 and issues updates every 2-3 years, drawing on collaborative monitoring…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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