Seychelles is a global destination for honeymooners. The islands’ glaringly white beaches, warm blue seas, exotic cuisine and verdant forests offer adventures for couples who can unclinch long enough to collect Instagram shots that will have their followers #sojealous. Travel brochures and websites for Seychelles all contain photographs of vibrant coral reefs with bright fish darting among them. But don a mask, dive underwater and the reality is shocking. The global bleaching caused by warming ocean waters in 2016 and 2017’s warm El Niño has resulted in a graveyard of white coral. The skeletal remains of once vibrant reefs now rim the islands. The level of bleaching across the world is similar to the catastrophe of 1998, when up to 97% of corals in some areas bleached. In Seychelles, many reefs around the islands collapsed into rubble in 1998. Marine biologists estimate that about 75% of the world’s coral reefs face imminent danger. Local threats include destructive fishing, uncontr...
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