Southern Seychelles Atoll Research Programme

Members of the CCRU (Spencer, Teleki, Spalding) are currently involved in establishing the linkages between widespread and catastrophic coral bleaching in the Indian Ocean and the oceanography and climatology of the 1997/98 El Nino event. These studies are a continuation of this group's Southern Seychelles Atoll Research Programme which, using theresearch vessel Searcher [www.searcher.norweb.se], recorded bleaching incidence and intensity at four reef sites in the southern Seychelles (sea area 6-10⁰S 45-54⁰E) between March and May 1998. Coral bleaching and bleaching-induced coral mortality varied between 62 and 65% at different locations, with further differences between environments at the within-reef scale, and between coral growth forms.