Mildly bleached coral can recover if the temperature drops, otherwise it may die.

Within a month, more than half the Caribbean reefs had turned to bleached coral skeletons, now coated with slime.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bleached coral in New Caledonia in the southern Pacific.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bleached coral reef on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Bleached coral is photographed on Australia's Great Barrier Reef near Port Douglas, February 20, 2017 in this handout image from Greenpeace.