In late 2023, Jamaica’s reefs were subjected to the deadliest coral bleaching event in history.

Due to the longest and most severe heat spike on record throughout September, October, and November, sea surface temperatures around the island consistently lingered above 29°C, the bleaching threshold. This resulted in a mass extinction event that reversed more than fifteen years’ worth of restoration efforts to the reefs.

While coral bleaching is a stress response from which the corals can still recover, by the first week of October it was too late, and almost all of Jamaica’s iconic, golden “elkhorn” and “staghorn” branching corals were dead.

Jamaica’s reefs are critical to ecosystem function. They provide a habitat for countless fish and crustacea, as well as shoreline protection and recreational diving and snorkeling.

The loss of these reefs has serious erosion and property loss and damage implications for beaches, coastal infrastructure, communities, and people’s livelihoods.

The White River Fish Sanctuary is working tirelessly to re-establish populations of Jamaica’s critical reef-building species by finding and flagging far-flung survivors up and down the coastal shelf to propagate and ultimately cross-breed these to develop stronger, more resilient genetic reserves.

Felix Charnley, coral reef scientist and marine consultant at the White River Fish Sanctuary, has said: “This is a needle in a haystack search mission but it’s this or nothing. If you don’t find and salvage what’s left now, be prepared as an island to be left without any coral. It’s too late to save these reefs. 2023 showed us that. What we’re doing is endangered species conservation in the hopes that humanity can afford these life forms a more hospitable planet to survive on in a reasonable timeframe.”