Every year the National Monitoring Program in the Gulf of Eilat carries out and publishes a report that reveals, among other things, the sea temperature level.
According to the latest report, sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Eilat, located at the southern tip of Israel, continued to rise over the past year.
Between mid-July and mid-August, temperatures increased by around 2°C weekly, averaging 1,5°C above the historical average for that period.
Since 1988, when they began measuring these temperatures, there has been an average annual increase of 0,34 °C per decade, but this increase has been more pronounced since 2004, with a 10-year average increase of 0,42 °C.
The report also highlights that sea surface temperatures during the winter were higher than usual, with an annual average half a degree Celsius (0,9 °F) higher than in 2022.
One of the main concerns is that the average density of corals in the Coral Beach Nature Reserve has reached its lowest level since the monitoring program began. The report also revealed that there was an accumulation of fertilizers in the sea, which encourages algal blooms.
However, it's not all bad news: the diversity and composition of stony corals in Eilat's reefs have changed minimally from year to year. In addition to the community structure remaining stable, coral cover has returned to levels close to those of March 2020.