Sea temperature discussion

I promised a discussion about our recent heat wave and its effect on sea temps. First of all, we are not alone.

The first map shows temperatures at a network of buoys operated by aqualink.org.

Yellow means the area is under a heat watch, orange means heat warning, red means coral bleaching is likely, brown means coral death is likely. There is one location in level 2, on the Pacific side of Costa Rica, which has been above bleaching temperature since late March.

We are mostly in the heat watch area since we really have been extremely hot for only a couple of weeks, and we are just now at the bleaching temperature. As you can see on the second map, one location is giving a bleaching warning, the buoy off of West Bay. A couple of days ago, the thermometer one meter below the surface reached 89 degrees (31.8C) around the island. That’s a very warm bath temperature and not a good temp for coral.

But as you can see in the last chart, which is the temperature recorded at Blue Hole, midisland on the north side, normally we get a little cooler as we move late June into July because we usually get a few more showers, that cools sea temps a bit. But the sea gets warmer as we get into late August – October. This, of course, is also our hurricane season. Right now sea temperatures are about 1 degree celsius (2 degrees fahrenheit) above this time last year. Hopefully we get some rain and cool the sea a bit, but I’m concerned as we get into late August, if we are still warm, it won’t be good for the reef and it will give more fuel to any nearby tropical storms.