Concerning the elevated sst's and bleaching in Maldives, posted in the last report, I should explain that bleaching although widespread among sensitive species, was not severe and mortality appears to have been low. When the temperature dropped by a degree, from 30 to 29 C, most of the bleaching disappeared, without signs of much mortality. I see the occasional pallid colony with some partial mortality but this could be caused by any number of things. My observations are based on many sorties inspecting corals and are not quantitative. I conclude that mortality was low because I saw few signs of partial mortality in bleaching corals and the same coral types that were bleaching everywhere I looked (i.e. nearly 100% were affected), are alive and apparently well now.--William Allison <maadheli@dhivehinet.net.mv>