The Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) released its seventh Status of Coral Reefs of the World report, showing bleaching events are growing more frequent. Global hard coral cover has fallen about 9.5% against the 1980–2009 reference period, with a steep drop since 2010. In 2024, 87% of reefs faced unprecedented heat stress and 42.6% faced stress severe enough to risk mass bleaching. Marine heatwaves are now the strongest driver of decline, and recovery windows have shrunk from about 10 years to 4–6 years. The fourth global mass bleaching event began in 2023.