In the northern and central regions of the Great Barrier Reef, scientists were stunned to discover the incredible damage the corals had suffered while doing a survey of the reef from Cairns to Cape Melville.
But a broader use of technology in collaboration with Google, the University of Queensland and US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency is capturing the bleaching event as it spreads around the world, reports the Guardian.
Researchers found that 35 percent of the corals surveyed in the central and northern sections of the reef were either dead or dying. The scientists dove into 84 reefs taking photographic evidence, while using six categories to score the condition of the 200,000 corals.
The coral deaths are evident in the algae covering the once pristine living corals. The death of the corals, after undergoing intense bleaching brought on by climate change and the whims of the weather created hot water that caused them to spit out the algae that provided them with color and food, say the scientists.
The conditions they found were so catastrophic they bypassed having their findings undergo peer review, deciding to release the information to the press on Monday this week, reports Live Science. “The research is publicly funded,” James Cook professor Terry Hughes said. “I released our mortality results because, as a scientist, I’m ethically obliged to inform people on an issue of national and international importance.”
The rapid spread of coral bleaching
The XL Catlin Seaview Survey has been capturing 360-degree panoramic images of the bleaching event as it has moved into the Indian Ocean. “The bleaching we just witnessed in the Maldives was truly haunting,” said Richard Vevers, the founder of the Ocean Agency told the Guardian.
Basically, the Maldives is a series of coral reefs built up on coral. The reefs are not only a source of food fish but are important to the islanders livelihoods as a tourist attraction. Even more important, the reefs act as a barrier to the ocean’s waters by preventing inundation of the low-lying islands.
The images taken in the Maldives were part of an ongoing project called Global Coral Bleaching. “We’ve been following this third global bleaching event since the start nearly two years ago and just when you think you’ve seen the saddest sight you’ll ever see, you see something even worse,” Vevers said.
The researchers say this latest bleaching event started in mid-2014 (about the time El Nino was forming), in the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii. This area got hit again in 2015, and by 2016, had spread to the Great Barrier Reef where close to 93 percent of the corals were hit by bleaching. NOAA declared the event was a global bleaching event in October 2015
In order to save the Earth’s coral reefs, we really must make it a priority to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and be better stewards of our environment. This means developing local strategies for protecting the coral reefs. It really is up to us, folks.
