Israeli researchers detect alarming coral bleaching in Red Sea

JERUSALEM, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Israeli ecologists and marine researchers detected significant coral bleaching in the northern Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea, off the coast of Israel's southernmost city Eilat, the country's Nature and Parks Authority (NPA) said in a statement on Tuesday.

In a study published in the journal Ecology and Environment, researchers from the NPA and the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat revealed that, for the first time, corals in the bay lost their natural colors due to unprecedented high water temperatures caused by this summer's extreme heat.