Reef Scientists - Fifth Mass Bleaching In Eight Years Officially Under Way In Australia
The Great Barrier Reef is in the grip of a mass coral bleaching event driven by global heating – the fifth in only eight years – the marine park’s government authority has confirmed. The authority, together with scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science, have completed aerial surveys across 300 reefs over two-thirds of the reef, with more to come.
“These surveys confirm a widespread, often called mass, coral bleaching event is unfolding across the Great Barrier Reef,” the authority said in an update. Researchers and scientists told Guardian Australia they were devastated by the bleaching, particularly in the reef’s southern section where corals hundreds of years old were severely bleached. Dr Roger Beeden, the chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said: “We now have widespread, often called mass, coral bleaching across the surveyed reefs.”
He said the bleaching was being driven by global heating and an El Niño climate pattern. In-water surveys were ongoing to understand the severity of the bleaching, he said, and in the past the reef had shown resilience.
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According to Coral Reef Watch data, the heat stress on corals in the reef’s southern and central region has been the highest on record, and the second highest in northern areas. Diana Kleine, project manager of Coral Watchat the University of Queensland, has been at Heron Island off Gladstone in the reef’s south. “It’s devastating. Unbelievable. The water was way too warm. Heron has escaped bleaching several times but this year it has hit so hard,” she said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/08/coral-bleaching-great-barrier-reef-australia