# Egypt's super corals begin to crack under heat

> Red Sea corals long thought resilient to warming are bleaching as heat waves strain their defenses.
- Title: Egypt's super corals begin to crack under heat · WIRED
- Summary: Red Sea corals long thought resilient to warming are bleaching as heat waves strain their defenses. Egypt's Red Sea corals, unusually heat-tolerant and…
- Keywords: red sea, coral bleaching, egypt, climate change, marine biology, mahmoud hanafy, eslam osman, heat waves, ocean warming, Egypt's, super, corals
- Source: WIRED — https://wired.com/story/egypts-climate-resilient-super-corals-are-starting-to-feel-the-heat
- Author: Eli Siegel-Bernstein
- Published: 2026-10-16T09:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: red sea, coral bleaching, egypt, climate change, marine biology, mahmoud hanafy, eslam osman, heat waves, ocean warming
## Hope fading for super corals
Egypt's Red Sea corals have been unusually resilient to rising water temperatures, with some scientists predicting they could become the world's last-remaining corals if oceans continue warming.
## Heat waves strain the reefs
In summers 2023 and 2024, heat waves strained Red Sea coral ecosystems. A survey led by Mahmoud Hanafy found bleaching throughout the Red Sea corals in 2024, affecting less than a tenth of colonies in…
## How coral bleaching works
In overly warm waters, algae nestled among corals' polyps produce toxic substances. Corals eject the algae as a defense mechanism, but because these organisms are their primary food source, bleaching leaves corals to starve.
## Why reefs matter globally
According to the United Nations Environment Program, reefs cover less than one percent of the seafloor yet support at least twenty-five percent of marine species, some only just now being discovered.
## Two theories on resilience
Eslam Osman at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology points to evolutionary history: heat-tolerant corals survived crossing the warm Bab al-Mandab Straight and spread northwards.
## What triggered 2024 bleaching
The Red Sea remained unusually calm for about a month and a half during the 2024 heat wave, weakening circulation that normally protects reefs.
## Signs of recovery emerge
HEPCA's preliminary estimates a year after the bleaching event put recovery rates at seventy-five to eighty-eight percent, depending on species and location.
## Conservation alone cannot save them
The Egyptian government is designating new protected areas and partnering with the United Nations Development Program and Global Fund for Coral Reefs.

> the key is to reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. Any other solution will just buy time
## Key takeaway

Egypt's Red Sea corals, unusually heat-tolerant and predicted to be the world's last-remaining reefs, suffered significant bleaching in 2023 and 2024, raising questions about what has protected them and whether that protection will hold.