A Coral Reef That Was Declared Dead in 2010 Has Fully Regrown — But With Species That Weren't There Before
The reef system designated AS-7 in American Samoa was formally assessed as ecologically dead following a severe bleaching event in 2009-2010. The assessment was conducted by a team from NOAA and two university marine biology departments and was thorough, documented, and unambiguous: coral coverage below 2%, associated species population collapse, recovery considered implausible without active human intervention.
No active human intervention occurred. The site was designated for ongoing passive monitoring — periodic surveys to document the ongoing decline — and largely moved out of active research focus.
The 2019 survey found something the monitoring team initially assumed was a data collection error.
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