Tuvalu coral 99.9% wiped out by heatwave, scientists say

Tuvalu has lost an estimated 99.9 percent of the coral that built its remote islands to a 2024 marine heatwave, scientists say, as leaders prepare to visit the low-lying Pacific nation on Tuesday during a pre-COP climate gathering hosted by Fiji.

The meeting, held before the annual UN climate conference in Turkey, has been presented as a chance for Pacific nations to show the effects of climate change. Leaders are also expected to spend a day in Tuvalu, more than 800 kilometres north of Fiji.

Marine biologist Austin Bowden-Kerby, who visited last year, said he documented dead coral across the lagoon reef. He said the loss was not caused by pollution or overfishing but was a direct result of climate change.

Rising sea levels have already largely swamped two of Tuvalu's nine coral atolls, and scientists fear the whole archipelago could become unliveable by the end of the century. Tuvalu Prime Minister Feleti Teo told the UN last week that sea-level rise was “not a future threat, it is a present reality”.

Local scientist Rajneel Singh said climate change was also affecting the waters that have long sustained Tuvalu's population of 10,600, with red snapper and other fish now caught less often and in smaller sizes.

A coral nursery has provided some hope and has seen the return of plankton-feeding fish, but Bowden-Kerby said it cannot replace all the lost reefs. Singh said funding for the work ran out at the end of September and more money was needed to keep it going.

The United Nations' World Ocean Assessment has warned that 90 percent of reefs could disappear if global warming exceeds 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.