Scientists and tour operators grapple with 'crisis under the water'

Millions of Aussies’ HECS debt wiped

A patchwork of colourful and white coral lies not far below the surface off Hook Island in the Whitsundays.

Marine scientist Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg emerged from the sea with a blunt assessment of what’s occurring.

“They’ve been slowly bleaching, I think, over the last couple of weeks,” he told 9News.

A patchwork of colourful and white coral lies not far below the surface off Hook Island in the Whitsundays.

“Some of those will survive but a lot of them will die. At this sort of scale, it’s quite a hit as you can imagine.”

He’s one of the researchers assessing the damage after the latest marine heatwave swept over the Great Barrier Reef, causing the fifth mass bleaching event in the past eight years.

The Australian Institute of Marine Science estimates 73 per cent of the reef has suffered “prevalent bleaching”, and for the first time ever, “extreme bleaching” has been recorded in all three regions of the marine park.

“It’s really important that we see this as not business as usual because it’s not. The steps we take now will determine whether or not we have coral reefs in the future,” Hoegh-Guldberg said.

9News was given a tour of some of the impacted regions by the Australian Conservation Foundation.

The ACF’s Freya Cole said it was devastating to see the reef struggling, calling on the Albanese government to do more to lower emissions, to take pressure off the vulnerable ecosystem.

Bleaching occurs when heat-stressed coral turns white, after expelling the algae that provides its colour.

“There’s a crisis under the water and it’s exacerbated by climate change,” she said.

Bleaching occurs when heat-stressed coral turns white, after expelling the algae that provides its colour.

As sea temperatures rise as a result of global warming, these events are happening more frequently.

It’s worrying tour operators like Lindsay Simpson, who has run chartered reef trips with her husband for more than 10 years.

“I just had a sinking feeling it was going to happen in our summer and we had an absolute scorcher,” she told 9News.

“I think to pretend to people when they come out with us that everything’s fine. People have woken up to the fact everything’s far from fine, so what are we doing about it?”

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said $1.2 billion had been poured into reef adaptation and resilience and outlined the government’s plans to lower emissions.

But to save the reef for future generations, marine scientists like Professor Hoegh-Guldberg argue more drastic action is needed.

“We can’t dither and say, ‘Is it worth it, is it not?’ It’s worth it, and it’s changing fast, and it will be gone very, very soon. We need to act now.”