bleach

It was her first day back, and she had just walked through a sea of scorched Joshua trees rising from blackened earth, their dagger-like leaves bleached an unhealthy yellow.

Now, after being washed in boiling water and bleach, it was no longer brown at all, but a perfectly lovely, nearly white color, not quite beige, not quite cream.

Following the attack the teenagers went back into the house where they tried to bleach the knife, then ran away.

“They’re getting that good California sun and are all bleach blonde,” said Jessica West, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

It has suffered four significant marine heatwaves between 2016 and 2022, causing much of its coral to expel the algae which gives them life and colour - a process called bleaching, which is often fatal.