High water temperatures have led to several other major, though more local-ized, bleaching events since the 1997–98El Niño. It is possible that such events oc-curred in the past but were not reportedbecause many reefs are in remote locationsthat were rarely observed by scientists. Today, scientists continually monitor sea- water temperatures by satellite and can im-mediately report bleaching when it occurs via the Internet. It is also possible that thehigh water temperatures and coral bleach-ing of the past several years are just nor