topic: Great Barrier Reef

topic: Great Barrier Reef

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Global coral bleaching now underway looks set to be largest on record
- Scientists say that coral reefs are currently undergoing a global bleaching event, with more than 54% of the world’s coral reef areas in the territorial waters of over 50 countries experiencing heat stress. According to one scientist, the percentage of areas dealing with bleaching-level heat stress “has been increasing by roughly 1% per week.”
- To assess the current bleaching event, scientists drew on satellite-derived sea surface temperature data and in-water measurements.
- Experts say the current El Niño, a phase in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern, in combination with rising global sea temperatures, is responsible for the extensive coral bleaching.
- Mongabay interviewed scientists most familiar with coral reef bleaching data, and experts attending the 9th Our Ocean Conference in Athens, taking place from April 15-17.

‘Corals dying’ as yet more bleaching hits heat-stressed Great Barrier Reef
- Both aerial and in-water surveys have shown that the southern section of the Great Barrier Reef is undergoing extensive coral bleaching.
- Surveys have also shown “limited bleaching” in the northern part of the Great Barrier Reef.
- However, scientists and reef managers plan to conduct more air and in-water surveys to further assess the coral bleaching across all parts of the Great Barrier Reef.
- Scientists suspect but have not yet confirmed that a seventh mass bleaching event since 1998 is currently underway; the last mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef happened in 2022.

With record ocean temps, is the Great Barrier Reef facing catastrophe?
- The inaugural international edition of the famed South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and conference took place from October 15-22, 2023 in Sydney and Mongabay spoke with some of the most interesting presenters there.
- On this edition of the Mongabay Newscast, multiple guests working in coral reef conservation, kelp reforestation and sustainable agriculture detail their projects and challenges they’re tackling.
- Like the catastrophic Great Barrier Reef bleaching event of 2016, if the current conditions line up just right, “we could lose a huge part of the reef by February,” says guest Dean Miller of the Forever Reef Project, which is now racing to add the final coral specimens to its “biobank.”
- Guests also include John “Charlie” Veron from the Forever Reef Project, Mic Black from Rainstick, and Adriana Vergés from the Kelp Forest Alliance.

NGOs block gillnet fishing across 100,000 sq km of Great Barrier Reef
- In an effort to protect dugongs and other threatened species, WWF-Australia bought a commercial gillnet fishing license for a swath of ocean in the northern Great Barrier Reef, to establish a de-facto marine sanctuary spanning more than 100,000 km2 (38,600 mi2).
- Dugongs, turtles, dolphins and other marine animals are easily caught in gillnets, and experts say many fatalities go unreported.
- The newly protected region is an important feeding ground for dugongs, supporting a local population of about 7,000, experts say.
- WWF-Australia says it hopes the Australian and Queensland state governments will establish more permanent protections for dugongs on the Great Barrier Reef, and that Traditional Owners can use the area for sustainable fishing and tourism.

Safe havens for coral reefs will disappear as oceans warm, study says
- A new study found that coral reef “refugia” — places that have historically protected coral reefs from thermal stress — will decline substantially when global heating reaches 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels; at 2°C (3.6°F), most coral reef refugia will disappear.
- A loss in refugia will expose corals to thermal stress that they will likely be unable to cope with, most likely leading to large-scale loss of coral reefs that will threaten marine biodiversity and food security.
- The authors suggest that management efforts should be refocused to help coral reefs adapt to a warming ocean and to assist in their migration to more hospitable locations.
- However, efforts to help corals adapt to rising temperatures may be futile as long as carbon emissions continue to rise.

Seagrass-grazing dugongs and green sea turtles supercharge the seeds they eat
- By consuming and pooping seagrass seeds, dugongs and green turtles play a vital role in maintaining vital, carbon-sequestering seagrass meadows, a new study reveals.
- Scientists working in the Great Barrier Reef found that seagrass seeds germinated up to 60% faster after they had passed through the gut of dugongs or green turtles, and also had two to four times greater germination probability.
- The research highlights the mutual relationship between seagrass and marine mega herbivores, and underscores the shared vulnerability if either party is undermined.
- Experts say we must do what we can to protect dugongs, turtles and other grazing marine animals if we wish to protect seagrass ecosystems and their many benefits.

Great Barrier Reef in danger: Don’t fight the diagnosis, fight the threats (commentary)
- At the end of June, UNESCO issued a draft decision to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” due to multiplying threats. The Australian government reacted by saying the decision was politically motivated, without addressing the problems.
- The “in danger” proposal is currently being debated by the World Heritage Committee during its Extended 44th Session hosted virtually in Fuzhou, China.
- “My plea to the government and to my fellow Australians: don’t let politics thwart science. Don’t fight the diagnosis. Fight the threats. The world is watching and the clock is ticking,” writes the former executive director of the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority in this new opinion piece for Mongabay.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

A mountain of a reef, taller than the Eiffel Tower, found on Great Barrier Reef
- Researchers have recently found a large, detached coral reef, measuring more than 500 meters (1,640 feet) in height, in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Australia.
- This is the eighth known detached coral reef in the area, and the first to be discovered in the past 120 years.
- While little is known about these reefs, scientists have observed that they host an array of marine life.
- This particular reef doesn’t appear to have been affected by the recent bleaching events at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, according to the lead researcher.

As reef bleaching intensifies, lab-grown corals could help beat the heat
- The Great Barrier Reef suffered its third major coral bleaching event since 2016 this past March, with scientists saying the extent of the damage was far greater this time.
- Up to 60% of the reef was affected in the latest bleaching, which occurs when warming waters force the corals to flush out their life-giving algae.
- But scientists say they’re encouraged by the results of ongoing lab research to create “enhanced” corals, gene-edited to make them more resilient to rising water temperatures.
- Lab and field tests show the hybrid corals have up to 26 times better heat tolerance, which would make them ideal candidates for repopulating bleached reefs.

Coral reef loss helps some fish grow bigger, but perhaps not for long
- A new study finds that large, herbivorous fish species, such as parrotfish, surgeonfish and rabbitfish, benefit from coral reef demise due to an increase of a food source, algal turf.
- Certain fish species grew larger in response to coral loss and increased algal turf, contributing to an increase in reef fish biomass, although the study suggests that any gains would be short-lived.
- Data for this study were collected between 2003 and 2018 off the coast of Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, which experienced coral reef losses of up to 83% due to mass bleaching events and cyclone destruction during that period.

Great Barrier Reef suffers biggest bleaching event yet
- Australia’s Great Barrier Reef just experienced its third major bleaching event in the past five years, which has caused severe and widespread damage.
- The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) recorded its highest ever sea temperature this past February, which triggered the bleaching.
- The southern part of the reef, which remained relatively untouched during large bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, suffered the most acute damage this time.
- While some corals are able to recover from bleaching, this process can take more than a decade, and scientists fear the Great Barrier Reef won’t recover.

Protecting living corals could help defend the Great Barrier Reef from ocean acidification for decades
- For the first time, researchers have studied the impact of ocean acidification on coral reefs with a device that allows them to increase levels of carbon dioxide on living coral for months at a time.
- Corals exposed to higher levels of carbon dioxide sustained more damage than those in aquarium experiments because fish, sponges, and other native organisms grazed on the fragile reefs.
- However, living corals were more resilient than scientists expected, providing a promising buffer against the impacts of climate change.

Models, maps, and citizen scientists working to save the Great Barrier Reef
- As global warming drives more events that impact coral reefs, managing the Great Barrier Reef’s resilience demands comprehensive and detailed mapping of the reef bed.
- Available surveys and maps with geographically referenced field data have been limited and fragmented.
- A diverse research team recently demonstrated a successful approach, applying statistics to image data to build predictive models, integrate diverse datasets on reef conditions, and provide a comprehensive map of the Reef that informs reef management decisions.

2018’s top 10 ocean news stories (commentary)
- Marine scientists from the University of California, Santa Barbara, share their list of the top 10 ocean news stories from 2018.
- Hopeful developments included international efforts to curb plastic pollution and negotiate an international treaty to protect the high seas.
- Meanwhile, research documenting unprecedented ocean warming, acidification, and oxygen decline spotlighted the real-time unfolding of climate change.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Deep reefs were not spared by 2016 mass bleaching event on Great Barrier Reef
- New research finds that the mass bleaching event that led to the death of 30 percent of shallow-water corals on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 also had a substantial impact on deep reefs.
- Occurring at depths lower than 30 to 40 meters below the surface of the sea, deep coral reefs, also known as mesophotic reefs, were previously thought to be “ecological refuges from mass bleaching” thanks to cold water rising up from deeper in the ocean, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications this month.
- But researchers determined that deep reefs’ ability to offer “ecological refuge” to coral has some important limitations, and that both shallow and deep reefs are at risk of mass bleaching in the future.

The Great Barrier Reef is losing its ability to bounce back from disturbances
- According to a study published in the journal Science Advances this month, the Great Barrier Reef is losing its ability to bounce back from disturbances like coral bleaching, crown of thorns starfish outbreaks, and cyclones.
- A team of researchers led by scientists at Australia’s University of Queensland (UQ) found that, during the 18-year period between 1992 to 2010, the coral recovery rate of reefs in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park declined by an average of 84 percent.
- This impaired recovery ability is likely due to the succession of acute disturbances the reef has experienced as well as the ongoing impacts of chronic pressures like poor water quality and climate change, researchers found. But the study’s authors also say that effective local management strategies could help restore the reef’s capacity to recover.

A global coral reef monitoring system is coming soon
- Coral reef conservation efforts will soon get a major boost with a global monitoring system that will detect physical changes in coral cover at high resolution on a daily basis.
- The satellite-based system will enable researchers, policy makers, and environmentalists to track severe bleaching events, reef dynamiting, and coastal development in near-real time.
- The system will leverage Planet’s daily high resolution satellite imagery, running the data through cloud computing-based algorithms to map reefs and chart changes over time.

Audio: Sylvia Earle on why we must act now to save the oceans
- On today’s episode, renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle joins us for an in-depth conversation about marine conservation.
- Legendary oceanographer, marine biologist, and environmentalist Sylvia Earle, sometimes known as “Her Deepness” or “The Sturgeon General,” is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and former chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A documentary film about her work called Mission Blue won a 2015 News & Documentary Emmy.
- She joins us today to discuss how effective marine protected areas are at conserving the oceans and their inhabitants, her Hope Spots program that is identifying some of the most valuable marine environments on the planet, and the latest advances in marine conservation that she is most hopeful about.

Australia to invest $379 million to protect the Great Barrier Reef
- Australia is set to invest more than 500 million Australian dollars ($379 million) in funding to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
- The investment will help restore water quality, tackle crown-of-thorns starfish attacks on coral, and fund research on coral resilience and adaptation.
- Some critics are, however, concerned that the funding aims to target strategies that have already being tried in the past, and have seen limited success.

DJ and ornithologists create wildlife music game
- Wildlife DJ Ben Mirin has teamed up with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Cornell Hip Hop Collection on a new online game that uses wildlife recordings.
- Players take sound recordings of wild creatures and transform them into loops, creating a wide variety of song clips. Players also learn about the animals and the habitats they live in.
- Mirin was also a guest on Mongabay’s podcast in 2017.

Reef bleaching five times more frequent now than in the 1980s, study finds
- Severe coral bleaching is now happening about every six years, whereas in the 1980s, it took place every 25 to 30 years.
- Severe bleaching can kill the reef’s constituent corals.
- It takes at least a decade for a reef to recover from bleaching.
- Unless humans act to halt the rise of global temperatures, scientists predict that we’re headed for a time when bleaching might be an annual occurrence.

Trending tree cover loss spikes again in Queensland
- A government analysis of Landsat satellite imagery found that 395,000 hectares (976,000 acres) of tree cover was cleared between 2015 and 2016 — nearly a 33 percent bump over the same time period in 2014-2015.
- Forty percent of that clearing — some 158,000 hectares (390,000 acres) — occurred in the Great Barrier Reef catchment.
- The latest year’s clearing is the highest rate in a decade and represents the sixth consecutive year in which rates in Queensland have risen.

Climate change-induced bleaching decimating Great Barrier Reef
- In 2016, scientists reported the largest die-off ever on the Great Barrier Reef.
- Some 70,000 people depend on the Great Barrier Reef for employment in the tourism industry, and it’s worth about $5 billion annually.
- The study’s authors report that repeated exposure to higher-than-normal sea temperatures submarines the corals’ chances at recovery. Even corals that survive don’t appear to be more tolerant of extreme temperatures, and high water quality – important for coral regrowth – doesn’t seem to offer much protection against bleaching.

Top 10 stories you should be aware of this World Oceans Day, according to Carl Safina
- Safina’s latest book, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, came out in 2015, and is due for a paperback release on July 12 via Picador.
- “It’s about the thought and emotional range of non-human animals, but including humans,” Safina told Mongabay.
- Safina’s list of stand-out stories includes several oceans and marine life stories, a couple that just show how similar to humans animals can really be, and a few that will interest anyone concerned with the plight of the natural world.

Saving reef fish from the impacts of a hit film
- The trade in marine fish for home aquariums is a major cause of coral reef fish decline, and in the years since Finding Nemo was released, clownfish populations on coral reefs have been declining sharply as more and more people want a “Nemo” of their own.
- More than one million clownfish are taken from reefs every year and sold to private individuals for their home aquariums.
- Researchers from the University of Queensland and Flinders University have created The Saving Nemo Conservation Fund to protect popular marine species that are often captured on reefs and sold in pet shops through education initiatives and captive breeding programs.

Biodiversity makes reef fish more resilient in the face of climate change, research confirms
- After analyzing data from more than 4,500 fish surveys of reefs around the world to compare the effects of biodiversity and other environmental factors on global reef fish biomass, the authors of the study found that biodiversity was one of the strongest predictors of fish biomass, second only to mean sea-surface temperature.
- Temperature actually has a more complex relationship with fish biomass — while warmer ocean temperatures tend to boost fish biomass, wider temperature fluctuations have the exact opposite effect.
- Biodiversity, on the other hand, only makes fish communities more resilient against the changing climate, the researchers found. The researchers found biodiversity can even help buffer against temperature swings.

Global coral bleaching event hits Australia’s Great Barrier Reef hard
- In October, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that the third —and worst — global coral bleaching event in history was underway, caused by record high sea temperatures due to a strong El Niño combined with global warming.
- Australian scientists surveyed the Great Barrier Reef for damage in March, ranking the bleaching event at the most severe level, with up to 60 percent of corals affected in some places.
- Sea temperatures are starting to drop with the onset of fall, which means the worst of the bleaching is over. But researchers predict heavy loss of coral and an uncertain recovery.
- Critics say measures the government is taking to respond to the current bleaching and to protect the reef are inadequate and fail to address the root cause: climate change.

Good news! Some corals show surprising resilience to ocean acidification
- Increased ocean acidity does not slow down growth of the yellow finger corals around Heron Island, researchers have found.
- This adaptation is most likely a response to the extreme, but natural, fluctuations in temperature and pH that commonly occur in seawater around Heron Island, the authors write.
- This finding is a “step closer to help us understand how corals will cope in future oceans where pH is likely to drop due to human induced rising carbon dioxide levels,” researchers say.

Conservationists to send killer robots after destructive starfish
- Crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) eat live coral. They are native to Australia, but outbreaks in recent years have been blamed for destroying up to 40 percent of the Great Barrier Reef.
- Scientists at Queensland University of Technology developed an autonomous underwater robot that can identify crown-of-thorns starfish inject hundreds of the animals with a lethal injection on a single 8-hour mission.
- After ten years in development, the robot completed its first sea trials last week. Scientists hope to turn it loose on the reef in December, and eventually to release an army of the killer robots.

Snail scent repels starfish; may protect coral and Great Barrier Reef
- The Crown-of-thorns starfish is responsible for depletion of 40 percent of the coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef over the last 30 years
- Currently the Crown-of-thorns starfish can only be controlled by the labor intensive use of an expensive lethal injection, administered by divers
- Researchers have discovered a chemical compound produced by the giant Triton snail, that repels the starfish and could help protect the Great Barrier Reef

Microplastic pollution a possible threat to Great Barrier Reef coral
- The Great Barrier Reef off the coast of northeastern Australia is currently under threat from a floating layer of microplastic particles.
- Plastic debris floats easily and spreads throughout the seas, gradually fragmenting into smaller and smaller particles, making them tiny enough to be ingested by ocean organisms, including seagulls, mussels and coral.
- Microplastics have penetrated down the food chain into plankton – a major food source for coral and many other species throughout the world’s oceans.

Does fishing make corals sick?
- Coral disease is a major problem for reefs around the world.
- A handful of studies have offered conflicting evidence as to whether marine reserves help protect corals from disease.
- A recent study on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef indicates that fishing in reefs injures corals, which in turn allows disease to fester.

Australia cancels plan to dump dredge in Great Barrier Reef

Ariel view of the Great Barrier Reff. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. A consortium of companies—North Queensland Bulk Ports, GVK Hancock and Adani Group—have announced they are giving up on a hugely-controversial plan to dump five million tonnes of dredged sediment in the Great Barrier Reef. The plans ran into considerable opposition from environment, conservation, […]
Scientists blast Australian government’s moves to dismantle environmental protections

Australia’s native mammals have fared poorly since the arrival of Europeans. On Tuesday a prominent group of conservation scientists condemned the Australian government’s recent moves to eliminate protections for native ecosystems, cut research funding, backtrack on commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and step up persecution of individuals and organizations that speak out on environmental […]
Google Earth presents fish-eye view of coral reefs

You can now visit up-close and personal some of the world’s most imperiled ecosystems on Google Earth: coral reefs. The Google team is working with scientists to provide 360 degree panoramas, similar to Google street-view, to give armchair ecologists a chance to experience the most biodiverse ecosystems under the waves. “Only 1% of humanity has […]
U.S. bombs Great Barrier Reef, promises ‘rapid recovery’ of armaments

Four unarmed bombs dropped by the US military into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park pose a low risk to wildlife and a joint mission will aim for their “rapid recovery”, according to the government agency in charge of the reef. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said two of the bombs are inert, […]
UN may downgrade Great Barrier Reef’s heritage status due to Australia’s inaction on threats

The federal government insists it is striving to avoid the Great Barrier Reef being listed “in danger” ahead of a crunch UN meeting, after rejecting a Senate recommendation to block new port developments near the World Heritage ecosystem. The world heritage committee begins an 11-day conference in Cambodia this week, where the UNESCO body will […]
Great Barrier Reef loses half its coral in less than 30 years

Outbreaks of the coral eating crown of thorns starfish have been responsible for 42 percent of the decline in coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef between 1985 and 2012. Photo by: Katharina Fabricius, Australian Institute of Marine Science. The Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral cover in the last 27 years, […]
Australia sets aside 40 percent of its waters for protection

Aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In an announcement to coincide with the beginnings of the UN’s Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development, Australia has announced ambitious plans to protect 3.1 million square kilometers (1.19 million square miles) of its ocean, including the Coral Sea. If enacted, the proposition will […]
Fish use tools

A blackspot tuskfish (Choerodon schoenleinii) has been photographed picking up a clam in its mouth, swimming over to a rock, and then using the rock as an anvil by smashing the clam against it until it breaks open. In the journal Coral Reefs scientists argue this is the first conclusive evidence of a fish using […]
Google Earth used to identify marine animal behavior

Grazing halos are clearly seen surrounding coral patch reefs in the Red Sea. Image downloaded from Google Earth Pro 7 June 2011. Image date 19 Dec. 2010. Image copyright 2011 GeoEye. From the all-seeing eye of Google Earth, one can spy the tip of Mount Everest, traffic on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, and the ruins […]
Beyond gloom: solutions to the global coral reef decline

The world’s coral reefs are in trouble. Due to a variety of factors—including ocean acidification, warming temperatures from climate change, overfishing, and pollution—coral cover has decline by approximately 125,000 square kilometers in the past 50 or so years. This has caused some marine biologists, like Charlie Veron, Former Chief Scientist of the Australian Institute of […]
Loss of Great Barrier Reef due to global warming would cost Australia $37.7 billion
A recent study reports that the loss of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef due to climate change poses a catastrophe not just for marine life, but would cost $37.7 billion during the next century. Bleaching caused by ocean acidification and increases in salinity and water temperature may destroy the reef in mere decades. Dr. John Schubert, […]

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