A spectacular coral recovery in progress. Photo: Manu_San_Felix
The remote reefs in the Southern Line Islands in Kiribati are recovering quickly after an El Niño warming event in 2015-2016 decimated its coral, the National Geographic's Pristine Seas' team has found.
The team first visited the site in 2009 and again in 2021, before re-visiting the area last month.
Pristine Seas chief scientist Alan Friedlander said the warming event killed half of all the coral.
"The reefs have recovered dramatically," he said.
"It's really stunning to see the reefs basically seven years out from a dramatic event that killed half the coral.
Alan Friedlander Photo: Supplied
"Even though you think of coral as these stagnant things, they're constantly evolving and fighting for space, so everything's always in flux.
"So when we came back after 2021 things are slightly different than they were just two years ago."
Friedlander said human impacts like overfishing were "chronic stresses" to coral reefs and the Line Islands were remote enough to not feel those impacts.
"These places have the ability to recover and be resilient on their own without direct human influence.
"The take home message is we can't do a lot about climate change in the short term but we should worry about things we can control in the short term like overfishing, pollution and sedimentation."
Protected areas
The Southern Line Islands are marine protected areas (MPAs).
Friedlander said MPAs protect the entire ecosystem - including coral.
He said herbivores, like parrotfish, helped keep algae that competes with the coral in check.
With healthy numbers of herbivores coral becomes a "superior competitor", Friedlander said.
"Ecosystems are interconnected, and we don't fully understand it.
"But if we let nature manage itself it does a lot better job than us."
However, Friedlander said MPAs were not the "silver bullet" for all of the ocean's problems and needs to be used alongside good fisheries management and coastal zone management.
The Line Islands was the first stop in Pristine Seas initiative The Global Expedition, which will see the team travel across the remote tropical Pacific over five years.
The group, consisting of scientists and film-makers, will spend that time on the specially outfitted vessel, the E/V Argo, collaborating with governments, communities and local marine scientists.
Since 2008, the group has conducted 38 expeditions around the world and helped establish 26 marine reserves, spanning more than 6.5 million square kilometres of ocean.
An underwater photograph taken at Kiribati's Southern Line Islands Photo: Manu San Felix/National Geographic Pristine Seas