Bleached Coral is a accelerating problem that is devastating coral reefs the world over, including the Great Barrier Reef. Sad news.
Well more bad news from our oceans. The Great Barrier Reef, once a beacon of all things ‘good’ in our troubled seas, is not doing very well after all. This story was originally posted here on Grist by Philip Bump.
Optimists look at the Great Barrier Reef and see it half-full of coral.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985, according to a new study published Monday. The loss has been spurred by a combination of factors including hurricanes, coral-eating starfish and coral bleaching.
The paper, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the most comprehensive survey of a reef system over such a long period. The researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science found that reef cover fell from 28 percent to 13.8 percent over the past 27 years, with two-thirds of the decline occurring since 1998.
Pessimists are in the corner, sobbing and/or catatonic.