Pacific corals in ‘worrying’ state

An in-depth probe along a 50,000-kilometre (31,000-mile) stretch of the Pacific found that up to 90 percent of some coral colonies around the Samoan islands had been bleached. -AFP filepic

PARIS: A survey of Pacific corals has found many severely bleached, some near-dead, according to marine researchers who warned Wednesday that global warming threatened the precious ecosystem’s very survival.

An in-depth probe along a 50,000-kilometre (31,000-mile) stretch of the Pacific found that up to 90 percent of some coral colonies around the Samoan islands had been bleached.