Researchers said in a statement that warmer-than-normal temperatures of ocean is causing coral bleaching in the large sections of the Hawaii’s coral for the second consecutive year. Meteorologists have said that waters around Hawaii have been between 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit above the normal this summer.

As per experts, the island’s corals were actually under considerable stress lately due to last year’s lot whitening occurrence. Although the oceanic critters remain restoring from the era, whitening may be critical to a great number of them, they said.

Bleaching is caused due to several variables but the most common cause of it is mildly hot water. When the temperature gets too high, corals straighten out the macroalgae living in their own formation and turn to be truly white colored.

Researchers said a neutral tone coral have the ability to regain and retrieve its colors, but it is a lengthy method. Ruth Gates, director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, said in a statement that there are several corals that are in the process of recovering from last year’s bleaching.

Chris Brenchley, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, said the island chain experienced a mass bleaching event in 1996, and another one last year. But this year the temperature is nearly 3 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than normal, which can give rise to even worse conditions.

Bleaching makes coral more susceptible to disease and increases the risk they will die. This is a troubling for fish and other species that spawn and live in coral reefs, said experts.

Gates said, “You go from vibrant, three-dimensional structure teeming with life, teeming with color, to flat pavement that's covered with brown or green algae. That is really doom-and-gloom outcome but that is the reality that we face with extremely severe bleaching events”.