 Increasingly, climate change is threatening human communities around the world in a variety of ways such as rising sea levels, increasingly frequent large storms, tidal surges and flooding damage.One of the main results of climate change is rising sea water temperature which has a serious effect on coral reefs, through thermal-stress related coral bleaching.Between 1997-1998 the most significant worldwide coral bleaching event was recorded which corresponded with the El Nino Southern Oscillation, with significant damage to the coral reefs of the Western Indian Ocean.