The first of the corals we saw bleaching was Stylophora pistillata, a moderately uncommon species found on both lagoon and seaward reefs. It seems most common along some shallow lagoon reefs, such as that between Bigej and Meck Islands, where we first noticed the bleaching. Virtually all colonies of this species turned bright white from their normal yellow color, and the white clumps readily caught the eye of someone looking at the reef. In the first shot below, most of the colony is bleached white, a bit less so in the lower part of the photo. It seems the most affected areas were those exposed to the most direct sunlight; sometimes the parts of the colony between the branches or shaded by other corals retained a bit of color.
This is the normal appearance.
This was the appearance about eight months after the onset of bleaching. Most of the colonies had mostly died, although in many cases, a few branches of coral survived and turned yellow again.
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