Marine Park Department director-general Abd Jamal Mydin said the situation was critical with 50 per cent of the corals in some reefs dead after prolonged coral bleaching.
This is the first time the department is forced to shut down dive sites in nine marine parks after a two-degree Celsius rise in ocean temperature.
"The coral is already sick. We do not want snorkellers to step or touch the corals.
"It'll only increase the stress," he told the New Straits Times yesterday.
Diving and snorkelling are banned from these sites including the famed Pulau Perhentian and Pulau Redang to prevent added stress to the reefs.
The ban, which came into effect early this month until October, was put in place after widespread reports of coral bleaching in May.
Sixty to 90 per cent of the reefs in the 17 sites are bleached.
"Half of the reefs have died. We hope the remaining will recover soon," he said.
Malaysia is not the only one hit. Neighbouring Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have also reported mass coral bleaching in April this year due to rising temperatures in Southeast Asian waters.
A similiar event was reported during the 1998 El Nino episode.
University Kebangsaan Malaysia Research Centre for Tropical Climate Change System head Professor Dr Fredolin Tangang said the situation worsened with the onset of La Nina.0
Beginning April this year, easterly winds from the cooler waters of the Pacific Ocean have been pushing warmer waters into the Southeast Asian region.
This has caused significantly warmer waters, between 30 and 32 degrees Celsius. The situation is expected to worsen with climate change.
About 70 per cent of corals at diving areas in Phang Nga and Phuket provinces and Similan islands in Thailand are bleached.
"The ocean temperature has been steadily increasing due to anthropogenic climate change since the early 1950s. It is associated with global warming.
"The situation doesn't look good," said Fredolin who is also the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group 1 vice-chair.
He said coral bleaching and ocean acidification were just some of the effects of global warming which would impact the marine ecosystems and their services especially fisheries in the years to come.
Coral bleaching happens when the colourful algae that gives coral its colour and food dies, turning it into a bone white colour.
It is thought that a temperature increase of more than one degree Celsius and excessive sunlight trigger the single-celled algae zooxanthellae to attack the corals.
In defence, the corals expels the algae, making it vulnerable.
Universiti Malaysia Terengganu marine biologist Associate Professor Liew Hock Chark said depending on the period of exposure, the corals will either recover or die.
"Yes (the process is reversible). Not all the algae is exuded during bleaching. Some will survive.
"Hopefully, these will multiply and the corals will recover," he said.
It takes months to years for corals to recover from mass bleaching.
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