coral bleaching

This is Part 3 of a new series: Rebels to the Coral Reef Cause. The Great Barrier Reef has been around in various forms for more than 600,000 years. It has survived fluctuating temperatures and sea levels as ice-ages have come and gone, and Australia has drifted northwards. But is the latest episode of coral bleaching something new and different?

According to The Guardian, John Brewer Reef is at the “centre of a widespread coral bleaching event” with its corals in a “battle” against an “unprecedented” sixth event. The ABC reported similarly, and the story has made headlines around the world. So, Jennifer Marohasy and I thought we would go to Brewer and see how the corals have fared a

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have been tasked with reporting on the state of the corals and coral cover. They surveyed John Brewer Reef in March, made no mention of any coral bleaching in their report, and stated coral cover to be just 21.8%. There are no photographs. Underwater photographer Leonard Lim visited this same coral reef a month

It is all over the news, right across the world: the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching – again.   Children can’t sleep at night: it is not only the war in the Ukraine keeping them awake at night, but also our apparent disregard for nature. Except! On 10th April 2022 I went to the very epicentre of the claimed latest severe mass

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) has uploaded some footage of John Brewer Reef that is part of the Underwater Museum of Art, the footage was apparently taken by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in February.   It does not show a lot of bleached coral, but it does show some badly bleached individual colonies – and a lot of healthy

The media is reporting that there is bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Bushfires, cyclones, floods, droughts, heatwaves, bleaching, locust plagues, starfish plagues – this is Australia. It has always happened. The good news is that GBRMPA have refrained from sensationalism and should be congratulated for that. In their media comment, they point out that bleached coral is not dead

Almost nobody knows about the remarkable coral reefs right at the mouth of the Brisbane River, which are presently under the muddy plume of the Brisbane River flood. Those reefs are not “protected” by the harsh reef regulations that apply to almost all other corals on the Queensland coast. This is huge government hypocrisy. The closest reef is only 4