Here’s why you may want to visit the Great Barrier Reef sooner rather than later
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Version 0 of 1. Parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef face permanent destruction if the latest El Niño does not ease this month, scientists said in Sydney last week. The El Niño is a result of a warming of the ocean in the western Pacific — ideal conditions for coral bleaching, where coral expels living algae, causing it to calcify. Coral can survive only within a narrow band of ocean temperature. The scientists said areas of the Great Barrier Reef, a World Heritage site, are experiencing the worst bleaching in 15 years. Coral around Lizard Island off the tropical city of Cairns has seen the most widespread bleaching, with 80 percent of its coral bleached under unrelenting sunlight, said Anne Hoggett, director of the Lizard Island Research Station. “Bleaching is a clear signal that living corals are under physiological stress. If that stress is bad enough for long enough, the corals can die,” said Russell Reichelt, chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. “What happens now will be entirely dependent on local weather conditions,” he said. Scientists said the Great Barrier Reef needs a break in El Niño conditions within weeks if some coral areas are to survive. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s most recent forecast calls for a continuation of El Niño conditions. This year’s El Niño has passed its peak, according to the World Meteorological Organization, but it has been one of the strongest on record. Last year was the hottest on record, and 2016 could be even hotter, thanks to the El Niño weather pattern, the World Meteorological Organization said. The Great Barrier Reef stretches about 1,200 miles along Australia’s northeast coast and is the world’s largest living ecosystem, with 400 types of coral and more than 1,500 species of fish. It brings in billions of dollars a year in tourism revenue. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee last May stopped short of placing the reef on an “in danger” list, but the ruling raised long-term concerns about its future because of climate change. [Here are the fish and the facts about the reef under siege] While the El Niño is set to ease by the middle of 2016, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, the weather system — which brings hot, dry conditions to Australia’s east coast — is seen as foreshadowing the likely impact of future climate change. “Coral is the canary in the mine,” Hoggett said. |