Northern Red Sea named among reefs coping best in first global IUCN assessment
IUCN's first coral Red List of Ecosystems puts the Northern Red Sea among reefs that kept their coral through repeated heatwaves. HEPCA says projected heat stress still makes every Red Sea ecoregion Critically Endangered.
25 October 2026
The Northern Red Sea is one of a small number of reef regions that have held on to their coral through repeated marine heatwaves, according to the first global assessment of coral reefs under the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems.
The assessment covers 127 coral reef ecosystems in more than 80 countries and territories. More than 250 experts working in 10 regional teams carried it out, coordinated by IUCN, the University of Melbourne and CORDIO East Africa with the regional networks of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
IUCN names the Northern Red Sea, alongside Papua New Guinea, West Kiribati and Bermuda, among ecoregions that have been hit by repeated heatwaves yet still have their coral and a healthy mix of corals, algae and fish. It lists protecting those reefs first among the actions the assessment points to.
Resilience is not immunity
The Hurghada-based environmental association HEPCA, which set out the findings for this coast in a public post on 24 October, says the Northern Red Sea is classified Vulnerable on observed change over the past 50 years, while reefs further south in the region face higher risk. Once projected climate change and future heat stress are counted, HEPCA says, all four coral reef ecoregions of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are classified Critically Endangered.
That pattern matches the global result. 122 of the 127 assessed reef ecosystems, or 96%, are Critically Endangered when future risk is included, covering 99.8% of the assessed reef area. On the past 50 years of observed change alone, 116 ecosystems are threatened and 30 are already Critically Endangered. One ecosystem, the Western Galápagos Islands, has already collapsed.
IUCN stresses that Critically Endangered does not mean collapsed: most reefs still carry living coral and still function as reef ecosystems.
What local action can still do
Marine heatwaves are the single biggest threat in the assessment, but local pressures account for much of the rest. In 63% of the assessed reef ecosystems the balance between corals, algae and fish has been disrupted, with overfishing of parrotfish and predators such as groupers, along with pollution and sediment, helping algae grow at the expense of coral.
IUCN says local measures cannot stop marine heatwaves, but they can cut the other pressures and give reefs a better chance of recovering between them. It also flags thin monitoring data in some areas, including the Gulf of Aden.