Bunkley-Williams,-L.; Morelock,-J.; Williams,-E.H.,Jr.
	J.  Lingering effects of the 1987 mass bleaching of 
	Puerto Rican coral reefs in mid to late 1988.  -AQUAT.-
	ANIM.-HEALTH. 1991. vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 242-247.

Puerto Rican coral reefs were surveyed with photo-transects 
and remotely operated vehicle observations, and permanently 
tagged individual corals were monitored. Seven of eight 
photo-transects examined between April and October 1988 had 
bleached or pale colonies of eight species of corals. Between 
2.7 and 19% of the living coral surface area was affected on 
a transect. These observations indicate that additional 
bleaching occurred after the recovery of most photosymbiotic 
hosts in January 1988. This continued bleaching may represent 
the longest bleaching event ever recorded. Individual coral 
colonies that were bleached in October 1987 were permanently 
tagged and photo-documented in the field. Recovery of some of 
these colonies took more than 5 months. Some previously 
living parts of these colonies died and were overgrown by 
algae by January 1988. Surveys by remotely operated vehicle 
during 10-13 February 1988 disclosed bleached colonies of 
Agaricia  spp. to a depth of 60 m and unbleached colonies to 
a depth of 89 m.