KOROR (Palau Horizon) – By end of summer, Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) will have come up with a map of coral reefs in Palau which will be provided to State and government decision makers.
The map, which will highlight which ones are recovering well from the 1998 bleaching event and which ones are not, will be provided to government leaders to guide them in making decisions that deal with coral reefs conservation.
“We hope that this information will be valuable,” said PICRC Chief Researcher Yimnang Golbuu in an interview. “It can be used for determining which sites the government decision makers could put more attention to and which areas to protect.”
“In 1998, we had a bleaching event that hit several sites in Palau,” explained Golbuu. “And we want to have a quick picture of how things are and how the recovery is doing.”
Golbuu said they also want to see if they can use the map as a prediction tool to see how well the reefs in Palau can come back and recover if in the future the same thing as the 1998 bleaching event happens.
Golbuu said they have surveyed more than 80 sites around Palau, doing bedrock assessments and checking the conditions of reefs.
According to Golbuu, Palau’s coral reefs are recovering well. “The reefs are doing well, coming back from the 1998 bleaching event. I think it is mainly because Palau’s reefs are still in good condition and we still have fish. Once there is a problem and there’s no fish, the reef will have a hard time recovering.”
Another thing, Golbuu said, is that Palau still has a lot of clean areas which are not covered by sediments. And this allows the reefs to recover.
The areas up in the Northwest such as Ngarchelong, down South Koror and in the west in Babeldaob and Ngaremlengui are recovering well. However, the reefs in the West coast do not have much coral condition as in the South.
“As to why, we are still continually looking at it,” explained Golbuu. “We hope to be able to determine and provide information on why there are areas that are doing better than others.”
PICRC is working hard on the data right now so they can come up with the map by the end of summer.
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