Reef Threats & Climate

Every crown-of-thorns outbreak we've logged in Negros Oriental follows a familiar arc: an ordinary-looking survey, a population count that crosses a threshold nobody wants to see, then weeks of manual removal, the outbreak counts and removal totals that rarely make it into anyone's annual report but live here instead. Coral bleaching gets the same treatment, what we've actually observed at our sites, including places that have shown more resilience than expected, rather than only repeating what the global headlines say is happening everywhere. Marine debris and plastic pollution show up too, from local coastal clean-ups to research on how microplastics move through reef food webs. You'll also find the reasoning behind a position we hold deliberately, MCP doesn't run coral propagation or farming programs, a conclusion reached from watching how those projects perform elsewhere, not assumed as a default.

"The ocean can recover faster than we thought possible. If we just let nature take its course, the sea will save itself." David Attenborough, Ocean with David Attenborough, 2025

None of this is written to alarm. The purpose of tracking a threat this closely is being able to say, plainly, when something isn't yet a crisis and when it is, which takes more discipline than the alternative.