WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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This year, the Hawaiian Islands have experienced
mass coral bleaching due to a large warm water

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event. So we’re here to study the coral
reefs to survey which areas are bleached and

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which areas are experiencing other disease
outbreaks. The kind of data we’re collecting

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are data on species, data on the extent of
bleaching and the extent of disease. So the

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amount of the colony that is experiencing
bleaching and disease, how bad that bleaching is.

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Collecting this kind of data is really
important because it can help us answer questions

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about where bleaching is occurring and which
species are being most impacted. And this

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kind of information helps us make better decisions
about how to manage our coral reefs, which

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are a really important resource here in the
Hawaiian Islands.

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We did see plenty of bleaching down there on this particular dive, throughout almost every species

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that we surveyed, and also in both small and large colonies.

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Thanks for joining us on our dive! Check some more of our pictures and videos on sanctuaries.noaa.gov.