Majority of Great Barrier Reef suffering ‘prevalent bleaching’

From the air, these tropical waters are calm and pristine, but below the surface it doesn’t take long to find signs of an ecosystem in distress. They’ve been slowly bleaching, I think over the last couple of weeks and I guess some of those will survive, but a lot of them will die. Marine scientists assessing the devastation caused by a summer heat wave. When the water is too warm, the coral expels the algae that produces this kaleidoscope of colour, starving the stems of their vibrancy and killing them if they remain under heat stress. We’ve seen a very rapid uptick in temperatures of of the tropics in fact of the oceans, and that is putting pressure on an already pressured system. One of the worst hit reefs is off Heron Island, usually in undersea paradise. It now looks more like a bone white graveyard. The scale of it is very hard to to comprehend to witness the damage at the moment is witnessing something you love start to struggle. Along this 2000 kilometre coastline there are 3000 individual reefs. 73% have been affected most severely in the central and southern regions. The Conservation Foundation providing 9 News with a tour of some of the impacted parts. It’s such a crisis under the border and it’s exacerbated by climate change. While the coral patchwork isn’t deterring visitors. Very impressive boys out there, heaps of fish, big fish, little fish, very bright colours. It was awesome. The change is noticeable while I was here as a kid, 25 years ago. And so my memory of that back then is that it’s probably a lot more healthy. It’s health weighing on the minds of those working on the reef. The tourism industry worth $6 billion, employing more than 60,000 people. Operators are used to weathering the storm of bleaching events, but the gaps between are getting shorter. This is the fifth in eight years, I think, to pretend to people when they come out with us that everything’s fine. People have woken up to the fact that everything is far from fine. But what are we doing about it? Sea temperatures are starting to cool, giving the coral a chance to regain its colour. But scientists fear bleaching will become the new summer norm unless there’s a concerted effort to reduce climate pressures. If this happens again next year, and so on, corals will eventually lose their ability to fight back. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek says the government is pouring more than a billion dollars into reef adaptation and resilience. Salvation groups believe more drastic action is needed. On one hand, the Albanese government says it will protect the reef, but on the other hand the Albanese government continues to approve new coal and gas projects. It can’t have both our unique treasure facing a challenging future, but still hope remains it can be saved. A lot of the corals are growing back. We’ve got people planting corals but it’s the frequency of those mass bleaching events and the scary proximity which they’re happening is what’s worrying.