Huge Amounts of Corals in Great Barrier Reef Found Dead
More than a third of the coral in the northern and central sections of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia reportedly died due to mass bleaching. The corals to the south of the reef barely escaped with minimal damage according to researchers conducting the study.
After months of aerial and underwater surveys spanning a 1, 400-mile stretch (2, 300-kilometer) off Australia's east coast, scientists discovered that 35% of the coral in the northern and central parts of the Great Barrier Reef are either dead or dying. Some parts of the reef also sustained enormous damage from bleaching after losing more than half of the coral.
"Is it surprising? Not anymore. Is it significant? Absolutely," remarked Mark Eakin, the coral reef watch coordinator for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as quoted in a US News report. "We're talking about losing 35 percent of the population of coral in some of these reefs - that's huge."
According to scientists, mass bleaching occurs due to global warming and El Nino- a phenomenon whereby some parts of the Pacific Ocean warms causing erratic weather patterns around the world. Warm water stresses out the coral causing its color to turn white and making it extremely prone to diseases. Other severe cases of mass bleaching also lead to more than 80% death rate of the coral in some Pacific islands, Fox News reported.
Meanwhile, the Australian government received hefty criticism for its seemingly indifferent attitude toward climate change following the omission of references to the impact of global warming on the Great Barrier Reef and the country's Kakadu and Tasmanian forests in a United Nations report on UNESCO World Heritage sites. The removal of the said sections from the report was reportedly done to protect Australia's tourism industry.
"The science is really well known, that's not a problem at all so it's nothing new to the tourism industry. It's nothing new to the scientific community at all. So it's really hard to see what's so provocative in that report," said climate scientist and UN report contributor Will Steffen as per CS Monitor report.
