Cyclone damaged reef system

SAIPAN – A new report confirms Typhoon Soudelor exacted damage to reef off Saipan in the Northern Marianas, with substantial coral bleaching.

The United States All Islands Coral Reef Committee says coral reef resources were severely impacted by consecutive thermal stress events in 2013 and 2014, leaving approximately 85 percent of staghorn corals in the Saipan Lagoon dead.

The report added that low diversity, shallow-water corals across the remote Northern Islands suffered similar fates.

- RNZI