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Jeju’s Soft Corals Collapse Again as Heat and Extreme Weather Intensify

From Asharq Al-Awsat · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

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  • Soft coral colonies off South Korea’s Jeju Island are showing renewed slumping, with about half of one monitored cluster affected in recent months.
  • Researchers say rising temperatures, heavy rain, typhoons and changes in salinity may worsen the damage, while El Niño could intensify this year’s event.
  • South Korean authorities plan further monitoring and investigation of the coral communities, which support the island’s marine ecosystem.

Ko Myeong-hyo once dived off Jeju Island to harvest seafood and admired the vivid colors of its soft corals. Now, she says, two years of rising temperatures and harsher weather have left coral gardens slumping, turning white and dying.

The Paran Ocean Citizen Science Center, a group of divers monitoring the UNESCO-listed soft corals, says the phenomenon has returned this year. Roughly half of one cluster near the uninhabited islet of Beomseom has struggled in recent months.

Watching the coral garden collapse and turn white, it was so disorienting.

· Ko Myeong-hyoA Jeju diver described seeing the island’s soft corals deteriorate.

Soft corals differ from hard corals because they rely on internal fluid pressure to remain upright. Environmental changes can disrupt that pressure, causing the colonies to sag or collapse. Researcher Kim Taihun warned that repeated slumping could leave the corals with less ability to recover. Kim and Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology researcher Anna Beate Jöst documented Jeju’s 2024 slumping event in a May article in Scientific Reports.

I was afraid the whole sea might be collapsing.

· Ko Myeong-hyoKo described her reaction to the coral damage.

Kim said the current event resembled the 2024 episode and could worsen if high water temperatures continue through September. He also said El Niño could bring typhoons and heavy rain. Researchers have cited extreme weather on the Korean peninsula and freshwater flowing from China’s Yangtze River, which can alter salinity, as possible triggers.

The Korea Heritage Service said it has monitored the colonies this year and will continue long-term research. The Oceans Ministry plans a detailed investigation to assess the damage. Researchers are calling for consistent, quantitative monitoring, saying support for studying the losses remains limited. Jeju’s soft coral communities provide a nursery for the island’s marine ecosystem and exist near the northern limit of coral distribution in the East China Sea.

If another large-scale ‘slumping’ happens, corals partially recover and then a lot break off and deteriorate again, and that keeps repeating. Their capacity to recover just keeps declining.

· Kim TaihunThe researcher warned that repeated coral collapse could reduce recovery capacity.
About this summary

Originally published by Asharq Al-Awsat in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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