Hot and bothered Okinawa

As Ove Hoegh-Guldberg notes, on 5 August Yomiuri Shimbun reported mass coral bleaching in Okinawa: 'Should the water temperature stay high in August, it is feared that more coral will be destroyed than ever before – surpassing the case that occurred in 1998, when about 40 percent of the coral around Ishigaki island died'.

Islanders adopt their own coral reef rules, Japan Times 2 August, sketches a community-based conservation intiative on Ishigaki island, stresses threats to coral from poorly planned development, but lacks detail.

[P.S. 10 August: Ove Hoegh-Guldberg gathers together further information on the scale of this event, which extends to at least the northern Philippines and Korea as well as southern Japan]