623664 external_news 1563983114 1563983114 In the early 1990s, Thureya Mohamed would smile all the way to her house in Wasini island, Kwale county. She was always assured of enough fish for her family. Those days, the coral reefs were healthy. Then things changed. Mass bleaching occurred in 1998, 2010 and 2016. This occurs when corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light or nutrients. They expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white. Experts blame this on climate change and human activities, such as dumping of waste, mangrove cutting and sedimentation. ... One such scientist is Cody Clements, a Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology. Clements says coral reefs are home to so many species they often are called the rainforests of the seas. "Today they face a daunting range of threats, including ocean warming and acidification, overfishing and pollution,” he said, adding that more than one-third of all coral species are at risk of extinction worldwide.

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