“A dramatic rise in the surface temperature of Indonesian waters has resulted in a large-scale bleaching event that has devastated local coral populations. Following a report of a bleaching incident in May, WCS-Indonesia dispatched a “Rapid Response Unit” of marine biologists to investigate. Their initial survey revealed that over 60 percent of corals have bleached. The incident took place in the province of Aceh, on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra…Of particular concern is the scale of the sea surface temperature anomaly, which the NOAA website indicates has affected the entire Andaman Sea and beyond. Similar mass bleaching events in 2010 have now been recorded in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia and many parts of Indonesia.”