The Environment Chronicle

The number of wolves in Germany has grown, according to data released on 22 November 2017 by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the Documentation and Counseling Center of the Federation of the Wolf (DBBW). The researchers found 60 packs are now living across the country, which is 13 more than a year ago.

Order of theCourt of Justice of the European Union in Case C-441/17 R: Poland must immediately cease its active forest management operations in the Białowieża Forest, except in exceptional cases where they are strictly necessary to ensure public safety. If Poland is found to have infringed this order, the Court will order it to pay to the Commission a penalty payment of at least €100 000 per day.

COP 23 in Bonn is the first UN Climate Change Conference to receive official certification for eco-friendly performance. On 17 November 2017 Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks and Ovais Sarmad, UNFCCC Deputy Executive Secretary were presented with the EMAS certificate. The certificate verifies the event management's successful and environmentally-friendly organisation of the conference. Event managers were already aiming for the consistent prevention of environmental burdens when planning began eleven months ago, and their work was documented in the environmental statement required under EMAS. All goals and measures were documented in the environmental statement, then assessed on-site over several days by environmental verifiers and subsequently validated. Such measures included waste avoidance and strict waste separation, climate-friendly catering, excellent local public transport, climate-neutral shuttle services and environmentally sound and reusable materials also for the temporary structures. Energy supply and water consumption are also among the areas to be reviewed in the follow-up. After the conference, data on consumption, collected data and the goals and measures of the original environmental statement will be evaluated and examined again by the environmental verifier. This will include a precise calculation of the unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions caused, for example, by the arrival and departure of the participants. These emissions will be offset with certified emission reduction (CERs) credits from particularly ambitious international climate action projects. The IHK (The Chamber of Commerce and Industry) of Duisburg, which is responsible for Bonn, also handed over the registration certificate for the official EMAS database.

On 17 November 2017, at the Clean Air Forum taking place in Paris the Commission and the EU Environment Agency launched a new Air Quality Index which allows citizens to monitor air quality in real time. The Commission also published an Air Quality Atlas, a tool developed by the Commission's Joint Research Centre that maps the origins of fine particulate matter, such as dust, smoke, soot, pollen and soil particles, in EU cities. The new European Air Quality Index has a user-friendly interactive map that shows the local air quality situation, based on five key pollutants that harm people's health and the environment: particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ground-level ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO2). The Air Quality Atlas provides information on the geographical and sectorial sources of air pollution for the 150 biggest cities in Europe. It shows that pollutant emissions in cities originate mainly different human activities; and that transport, agriculture, industry and residential heating and responsible for the largest part.

On 16 November 2017, about 795,000 litre of cruide oil gushed out of the Keystone Pipeline in Marshall County, South Dakota. The pipeline company, TransCanada, said in a statement that the South Dakota leak was detected around 6 a.m. local time on Thursday. The pipeline was shut down, and the cause of the leak was under investigation.

On 14 November 2017, the UN Climate Change Secretariat honoured two international climate projects that are supported by the Federal Environment Ministry. Both projects received the ‘Momentum for Change’ Climate Solutions Award. One award recognises the work of the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative (MCII), which helps people prepare for the consequences of climate change. The second award-winning project is Rewetting the peat bogs of Russia, PeatRus for short, which offers great potential for affordable and natural solutions for climate action. The 'Momentum for Change' Award is an initiative of the UN Climate Change Secretariat. It honours especially innovative lighthouse projects that make a contribution to climate action and also address major economic, social and ecologic challenges.

The twenty-third session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 23) and the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 13), and the second meeting of the parties for the Paris Agreement (CMA2) was held in Bonn, Germany from 6-18 November 2017. Germany was the technical host of the COP, which was presided over by Fiji.

A new great ape species—the Tapanuli orangutan—was officially announced by an international team of scientists 0n 2 November 2017. With 800 or fewer individuals, the Tapanuli orangutan is the rarest of all great apes. Previously, two species of orangutans were known—the Bornean orangutan and Sumatran orangutan. This new third species lives in North Sumatra, but is genetically and behaviorally distinct from the two other species. An international team of scientists described the new species in Current Biology. The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) is distinguished from other orangutan populations based on morphological and genomic evidence. The new species is endemic to 475 square miles of upland forest in the Batang Toru Ecosystem of Sumatra and is believed to have been isolated from other orangutan populations for 10,000-20,000 years. The Tapanuli orangutan was first discovered in 1997 during an orangutan survey in the region. Over the next decade, the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP), together with other non-governmental organizations, universities, and Indonesian authorities, focused on learning more about the population. By 2006, a research station was established to study the orangutans’ behavior and genetics. A breakthrough came in 2013 when researchers examined the skull of a male orangutan killed in human-wildlife conflict. When compared to orangutans from other populations, the skull from Batang Taru showed noticeably different characteristics. This discovery prompted the largest genomic study of wild orangutans to date. As a result, the data collected clearly identified three distinct evolutionary lineages among all orangutans. The discovery of a new species of great ape in the 21st century is a cause for celebration. But it is also a call to action. Like all orangutans, the Tapanuli is under serious threat. Human encroachment—in this case from mining and a plans for a hydroelectric dam—as well as hunting put these orangutans in immediate peril.

A fifth of European fern and lycopod species, a group of vascular plants that underpins healthy ecosystems, are threatened with extinction and declining, as a result of urbanisation and expanding infrastructure, according to a new report published on 27 October 2017 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Twelfth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP12) in Manila, the Philippines, which concluded on 28 October 2017, achieved ground-breaking successes in species conservation. Over thirty new animal and subspecies were added to the CMS Appendices and will thus receive protection under the international convention. These include endangered species such as the giraffe, leopard, lion and chimpanzee. The African wild ass, which is critically endangered and of which there are approximately only 200 remaining in the dry regions of North East Africa, will be afforded complete protection. Through a joint Africa-wide initiative led by CMS and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), concrete steps will be taken to protect the leopard, lion, wild dog and cheetah. Shark species in sharp decline such as the angelshark and the whale shark will receive greater protection in future. Other important decisions taken at the conference include: The establishment of a compliance review mechanism for the convention. In addition to the Parties and the Secretariat, NGOs can also submit potential breaches to be reviewed. Measures for the prevention and reduction of underwater noise - whales and dolphins will benefit in particular from these. New activities to combat the illegal taking or killing of birds.

At 11:27 CEST on 13 October 2017, the most recent satellite to join Europe's Copernicus Earth observation programme, Sentinel-5P took off on board a Rockot launch vehicle from the Plesetsk spaceport in northern Russia.Weighing in at around 820 kilograms, the Sentinel-5P satellite will observe trace gases in Earth’s atmosphere from an altitude of 824 kilometres. The TROPOMI (Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument) spectrometer will deliver important information on air pollution, the condition of the atmosphere and climatic changes on a daily basis. With a swath width of 2600 kilometres, almost 1000 high-resolution spectral channels and high spatial resolution, Sentinel-5P will define new technical standards in the continuous mapping of our entire planet: TROPOMI measures in the ultraviolet, visible, near and short infrared wavelength ranges and is able to monitor a wide variety of air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde, sulphur oxides, methane and carbon monoxide. The trace gas data will be used in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service to provide information on regional air pollution as well. The mission is also intended to provide other information, for instance by monitoring volcanic ash as part of flight safety or by issuing warnings of excessive UV radiation. Another significant feature of the Sentinel-5P mission is that it will continue the time series initiated by the GOME, SCIAMACHY, GOME-2 and MIPAS measuring instruments, updating the existing long-term climate datasets for incorporation into the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.

On 27 September 2017 six ordinances on the protection of the marine environment in the North and Baltic Seas were promulgated in the Federal Law Gazette. This ensures legal protection under national legislation of the marine protected areas Doggerbank, Borkum Riffgrund and Sylter Außenriff- Östliche Deutsche Bucht in the North Sea and Fehmarnbelt, Kadetrinne and Pommersche Bucht - Rönnebank in the Baltic Sea. The sites are located in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in the North and Baltic Seas, which makes them a responsibility of the federal government. The EEZ is the area just beyond the 12 nautical mile-wide territorial sea. The new protected areas cover approximately 30 per cent of the German EEZ. The six marine areas have been part of the European Natura 2000 network of protected areas since 2007. This made it mandatory for Germany to protect these areas through necessary measures. The European Commission had already initiated an infringement procedure in this matter, which is now likely to be without cause since the German government placed the marine areas in its responsibility under protection. The infringement procedure was also directed at the federal Länder, who have the obligation to also include land-based Natura 2000 sites in their legal protection scheme. According to the new provisions, it is no longer permitted to introduce dredging waste into the sea in the marine protected areas, to operate aquacultures or to build up artificial islands. Anyone wanting to generate energy in these areas, exploit natural resources or lay submarine cables has to prove with an impact assessment that the project will not have considerable adverse effects on the marine environment.

The Federal Cabinet adopted a Copernicus strategy for Germany on 13 September 2017.

On 8 September 2017, the Republic of Kazakhstan announced plans to bring wild tigers back to their historical range in the Ili-Balkhash region and signed a memorandum with WWF to implement a joint tiger reintroduction plan. Kazakhstan will be the first country in Central Asia to implement such a paramount and large-scale program. In the last 100 years, global wild tiger populations have declined by 96%, from 100,000 to as few as 3,890 in 2016. Kazakhstan’s program will require the restoration of an immense riparian forest that is part of the wild tiger’s historical range. The government of Kazakhstan will designate a new nature reserve in southwestern Ili-Balkhash, which will restore the riparian forest habitat bordering Lake Balkhash. This reserve will protect existing wildlife, reintroduce tiger prey species, and safeguard this vital ecosystem.

The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships' Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) will enter into force on 8 September 2017, marking a landmark step towards halting the spread of invasive aquatic species, which can cause havoc for local ecosystems, affect biodiversity and lead to substantial economic loss. Under the Convention’s terms, ships will be required to manage their ballast water to remove, render harmless, or avoid the uptake or discharge of aquatic organisms and pathogens within ballast water and sediments. Her Excellency Mrs. Päivi Luostarinen Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Finland to IMO, handed over the country’s instrument of acceptance to the Ballast Water Management Convention to IMO Secretary-General Lim on 8 September 2016. The accession brings the combined tonnage of contracting States to the treaty to 35.1441%, with 52 contracting Parties. The convention stipulates that it will enter into force 12 months after ratification by a minimum of 30 States, representing 35% of world merchant shipping tonnage.

The maps show the development of nitrate pollution in rivers. The evaluations are part of the Nitrate Reports 2008, 2012 and 2016 on the EU Nitrates Directive (91/676 / EEC). The 2016 report also includes the development of phosphorus exposure for the first time. In addition to the identification of the trend and the quality class, the information per measuring point can also be queried.

On 29 August 2017 the Commission adopted a proposal for fishing opportunities in the Baltic Sea for 2018. This year's proposal also includes a ban on Baltic Eel fisheries, not traditionally a part of the annual allowable catch proposals. The European Eel stock has been at a historically low level since the late 1990s. It is today listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). In 2007 the EU adopted measures to allow this stock to recover. However, ICES advice published in May 2017 indicates that these measures have not been sufficient and the stock is still in a critical state. The Commission therefore proposes to ban all marine eel fisheries in the EU waters of the Baltic Sea for 2018. This ban would apply to commercial and recreational fishing. This also means that all eels caught accidentally will have to be released immediately. In addition, the Commission is planning to evaluate the Regulation on the recovery of the European eel.

Rising temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions will fundamentally change electricity consumption patterns in Europe. A team of scientists from Germany and the United States now analyzed what unchecked future warming means for Europe’s electricity demand: daily peak loads in Southern Europe will likely increase and overall consumption will shift from Northern Europe to the South. Further, the majority of countries will see a shift of temperature-driven annual peak demand from winter to summer by the end of this century. This would put additional strain on European power grids, the study published online on 28 August 2017 in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests. The study is the first to use observed hourly electricity data across 35 European countries – which are connected by the world’s largest synchronous electrical grid – to estimate how climate change impacts the intensity of peak-load events and overall electricity consumption. While previous work on the relationship between temperature and electricity consumption primarily focused on the US or single European countries and the overall consumption impacts, recent research suggests that the effects of changes in peak load may be much larger and costlier, putting the focus on times when the power grid is already stressed. While the study indicates that the projected effect of climate change on European electricity consumption as a whole is nearly zero, the shift in spatial as well as seasonal electricity consumption will be a fundamental challenge for Europe.

On 28 August 2017 a ban on plastic carrier bags came into force in Kenya, which means that anyone found selling, manufacturing or carrying them could face fines of up to 32,000 Euro or prison sentences of up to four years.

On 23 August 2017, Brazilian President Michel Temer signed a decree allowing a nature reserve in the Amazon rainforest to open for mining. The area, covering 46,000 sq km, on the border area between Pará and Amapá, known as the National Reserve of Copper and Associates (Renca) and is thought to be rich in gold, and other minerals. The decree cancels the park’s status as a national reserve.

Tony de Brum saw the effects of rising seas from his home in the Marshall Islands and became a leading advocate for the landmark Paris Agreement and an internationally recognized voice in the fight against climate change. De Brum, who was the Pacific nation's climate ambassador and former foreign minister, died on 22 August 2017 in the capital Majuro. He was 72.

The EU and seven of its member states have ratified the Minamata Convention on mercury thereby exceeding the 50-party requirement for the treaty to enter into force. On 18 May 2017, the EU, Bulgaria, Denmark, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden deposited their instruments at the UN headquarters in New York, bringing to 52 the number of parties that have ratified. As a result, in 90 days, on 16 August 2017, the Minamata Convention will become legally binding for all its Parties.

On 16 August 2017, Wayne Lotter, 51, was shot and killed by an unknown gunman in the Masaki district of the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Lotter was a director and co-founder of the PAMS Foundation, an NGO that provides conservation and anti-poaching support to communities and governments in Africa. Since starting the organisation in Tanzania in 2009, he had received numerous death threats relating to his work. The PAMS Foundation funded and supported Tanzania’s elite anti-poaching National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit (NTSCIU) which was responsible for arrests of major ivory traffickers including Yang Feng Glan, the so-called “Queen of Ivory” and several other notorious elephant poachers. Since 2012, the unit has arrested more than 2,000 poachers and ivory traffickers and has a conviction rate of 80%. The NTSCIU was recently featured in the Netflix documentary The Ivory Game. In a previous interview, Lotter said he believed its work had helped to reduce poaching rates in Tanzania by at least 50%. Lotter rarely took credit for PAMS’ success in helping reduce poaching rates in Tanzania, and was always quick to credit the work of the communities and agencies he worked with. Lotter was a big figure in the international conservation community, having served on the boards of several conservation groups and was the Vice President of the International Ranger Federation.

The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) has launched THETIS-MRV, a monitoring, reporting and verification system aimed at reducing carbon emissions from ships calling at European ports. On 7 August 2017 THETIS-MRV went live. The system will enable companies responsible for the operation of large ships using EU ports to report their CO2 emissions, as required by law from 1 January 2018 under the EU’s Monitoring, Reporting and Verification Regulation. The move is expected to encourage the uptake of greenhouse gas emission-reduction measures within the maritime sector, as the emissions data will be made public and updated yearly. In order to maximise the impact of the regulation and minimise the administrative burden on shipping companies and operators, the rules apply only to ships above 5000 GT which account for around 55% of ships calling at EU ports and yet represent around 90% of the total share of related emissions.

On 4 August 2017 United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres received a notification from the delegation of the United States expressing the country's intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change as soon as it is eligible to do so, his spokesman has confirmed.

On 2 August 2017, humanity will have used nature’s budget for the entire year, according to Global Footprint Network, an international research organization that has pioneered the Ecological Footprint resource accounting metric. Carbon sequestration makes up 60 percent of human demand on nature. Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s annual demand on nature exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Earth Overshoot Day has moved from late September in 1997 to August 2 this year, the earliest date since the world first went into overshoot in the early 1970s.

Boreholes in the North Sea could constitute a significantly more important source of methane, a strong greenhouse gas, than previously thought. On 1 August 2017 scientists from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the University of Basel published online new data in the international journal Environmental Science & Technology, indicating that gas migration along the outside of wells could be a much bigger problem than previously assumed. This type of leakage is currently neither considered by operators nor regulators, but could be just as important as fugitive emissions through damaged wells, which are usually recognized and quickly repaired. During expeditions to oil and gas fields in the central North Sea in 2012 and 2013, the scientists discovered a number of methane seeps around abandoned wells. Interestingly, the gas originates from shallow gas pockets buried less than 1,000 meters below the seabed. They are simply penetrated when drilling into the underlying, economically interesting hydrocarbon reservoirs. Seismic data from the subsurface of the North Sea further show that about one third of the boreholes perforated shallow gas pockets and may thus leak methane. According to the team’s calculations shallow gas migration along wells may release around 3,000 to 17,000 tonnes of methane from the North Sea seafloor per year. In the ocean, methane is usually degraded by microbes, thereby locally acidifying the seawater. In the North Sea, about half of the wells are located in such shallow water depths that the methane leaking from the seabed can reach the atmosphere, where it is acting as a potent greenhouse gas – much more efficient than carbon dioxide.

On 14 June 2017, the European Parliament narrowly endorsed a ban on the use of pesticides on “ecological focus areas“. This was proposed by the European Commission to protect biodiversity on farmlands. Under the approved legislation, farmers who receive subsidies from the bloc’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for improving biodiversity on land set aside for nature conservation will no longer be allowed to spray pesticides there.

On 13 July 2017 the European Commission decided to refer Poland to the Court of Justice of the EU for increased logging in the Białowieża Forest, which is a protected Natura 2000 site. As logging operations have started on a significant scale, the Commission is also requesting the Court for interim measures compelling Poland to suspend the works immediately.

A one trillion tonne iceberg has calved away from the Larsen C Ice Shelf in Antarctica. The calving occurred sometime between Monday 10th July and Wednesday 12th July 2017, when a 5,800 square km section of Larsen C finally broke away. The iceberg, which is likely to be named A68, weighs more than a trillion tonnes.

On March 28, 2017, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) posted a Notice on its website that glyphosate (CAS No. 1071-83-6) would be added to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer for purposes of Proposition 65[2] with a delayed effective date due to the pending case Monsanto v OEHHA. Monsanto’s challenge was unsuccessful in the trial court. Although the case has been appealed, no stay of the listing has been granted. Therefore, glyphosate is being added to the Proposition 65 list on July 7, 2017. The move makes California the first state to take a step toward requiring Roundup to come with a warning label.

On 7 July 2017, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs published initial results of a consumer survey conducted in preparation of the review of the EU Energy Labelling Regulation on washing machines. The study aimed at gaining better insights into consumers' behaviour, for instance when selecting washing cycles. The results were also passed on to the European Commission by the ministry, so as to encourage the Commission to adjust the EU Energy Label to make it more relevant by improving the criteria and requirements under the relevant energy efficiency tests. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has worked with the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control in commissioning a study that seeks to identify better requirements to be imposed on efficiency testing procedures for washing machines. The study, which was conducted by Ökoinstitut and the University of Bonn, serves the purpose of developing testing procedures that better replicate actual consumer behaviour. It found that, whilst the label refers to the appliances' energy-saving cycles, consumers tend to use the shorter standard cycles for cotton materials much more often than the energy-saving programmes; that they are willing to opt for more energy-efficient cycles provided that these last no longer than three hours; that they are using the new energy saving cycles “Eco 30-60°C” for laundry that requires only a light wash and “Eco 40-60°C” for laundry that requires a normal wash, and that they are mixing loads more; and that these new combined programmes use up to 8% less water and up to 15% less energy.

On 4 July 2017, the World Heritage Committee meeting in Karakow decided to take Comoé National Park, the Ivorian World Heritage site, and Simien National Park, the Ethiopian World Heritage site, off the List of World Heritage in Danger. In its decision, the World Heritage Committee congratulated Côte d’Ivoire for its work to fight poaching. It noted that populations of iconic species such as elephants and chimpanzees that were thought to have disappeared from the site are reproducing again and that the state of conservation of habitats is now very positive. Targets for fauna conservation have in fact been met and even surpassed. The World Heritage Committee welcomed Ethiopia’s commitment in building an alternative road to alleviate the disturbance of traffic on the main road that crosses the property, reduce cattle overgrazing and visitor impact. The Committee furthermore welcomed the stabilization of the site’s endemic animal populations of, notably, Walia ibex and Gelada baboons.

On Monday, 3 July 2017, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Institute of Transport Research signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Berlin that aims to promote cooperation between the two institutions in the field of sustainable urban mobility. The MoU provides a framework for cooperation within which the organisations will work together on issues related to sustainable urban mobility. They will also further discuss transport solutions and technologies aimed at improving urban mobility under the scope of the New Urban Agenda adopted adopted during Habitat III in Quito in October 2016. The collaboration will focus particularly on developing mobility concepts in the fields of the digital economy, accessibility and inclusive mobility, climate change, electro-mobility and non-motorised transport. UN-Habitat and DLR will deliver their complementary expertise in these fields. Due to its multi-disciplinary approach, DLR's Institute of Transport Research has extensive expertise in addressing a broad spectrum of research topics in the field of mobility utilising both quantitative and qualitative methods. UN-Habitat is in a position to advocate more sustainable approaches for improved mobility in cities. Both institutions aim to deliver applied and feasible solutions for the mobility challenges cities face in the 21st century. They also want to coordinate in tracking progress towards the transport related targets of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – particularly the transport target SDG 11.2 – 'Access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all'.

On a proposal of the European Patent Office its Administrative Council took a decision to amend the relevant Regulations in order to exclude from patentability plants and animals exclusively obtained by an essentially biological breeding process. The new provisions will apply with immediate effect starting on 1 July 2017.

On 30 June 2017, the Mexican Government enacted a permanent ban on gillnet fishing in the northern Gulf of California to protect the critically endangered porpoise known as vaquita marina.

The economic analysis firm Deloitte Access Economics has valued the Great Barrier Reef, a vast system of coral reefs located off the coast of Queensland, at 56 billion Australian dollars (37.9 billion euros, $42.4 billion). Its report, which was commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, said the Great Barrier Reef is worth 29 billion Australian dollars in tourism. It also assigned a further value of 24 billion more in "indirect or non-use value" – people who know about the reef but have not visited it yet. Another 3 million dollars came from recreational use, like beach visits or diving, Deloitte found. The assayers said that the Reef had contributed 6.4 billion dollars to the Australian economy in 2015 and 2016 combined, supporting 64,000 jobs including 33,000 in the state of Queensland.

On 19 June 2017, EU Member states approved the inclusion of 12 new species to the EU’s “List of Invasive Alien Species of Union Concern”.

After analyzing satellite and model data, NOAA’s experts say coral reefs around the world may finally catch a break from high ocean temperatures that have lingered for an unprecedented three years, the longest period since the 1980s. “This global coral bleaching event has been the most widespread, longest and perhaps the most damaging on record,” said C. Mark Eakin, NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch Coordinator.