SYDNEY – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has experienced severe coral bleaching, according to new data, which raises further concerns about the future of the iconic World Heritage Site.
The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), the official authority in charge of the massive marine park, conducted aerial surveys that found widespread bleaching in the far north and central sections of the 2,300 km reef, including some areas where bleaching was “difficult”. .
Further surveys are still being conducted, also on the main tourism areas, where it is assumed that the heat stress was less severe and the bleaching less difficult.
“Bleaching has been detected across the marine park – it is widespread but variable, in many regions, ranging in impact from small to heavy,” the authority said in an update Friday (March 18).
The discovery follows a series of mass bleaching events in recent years, as climate change has led to warmer sea temperatures and underwater heat waves that pose a serious threat to reef health. Mass bleaching events were not recorded until 1998, but have occurred since 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020.
Bleaching involves the corals that disperse the algae that live inside, leaving the corals colored. Bleached corals can die, but they can also recover and survive if the conditions of the affected reef are easier.
An expert on coral bleaching, Professor Terry Hughes, of James Cook University, said he believes the latest polls show that a sixth massive event has occurred.
“Continuous aerial reconnaissance of coral bleaching reveals (so far) a footprint of mass bleaching similar to 2017, when the central 500km region was hit the hardest,” he said in a tweet Friday.
“How many more cards does it take to trigger real reductions in greenhouse gas emissions?”
GBRMPA said it would not declare a mass bleaching event until all surveys and data analysis had been examined.
The results of the authority’s investigation come just days before the start of a monitoring mission by the United Nations, whose findings will inform a meeting in June that will decide whether the reef’s world heritage status will be revoked. Such a move could threaten the lucrative tourism industry generated by the reef and would also be humiliating for the federal government.
The ruling Liberal-National coalition has been heavily criticized for its refusal to adopt stronger carbon emissions, even though the government has warned its own reef authority of the threat that climate change poses to the reef.
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