All posts tagged: Reef

Great Barrier Reef’s worst bleaching leaves giant coral graveyard: ‘It looks as if it has been carpet bombed’ | Great Barrier Reef

Great Barrier Reef’s worst bleaching leaves giant coral graveyard: ‘It looks as if it has been carpet bombed’ | Great Barrier Reef

Published by skeptic

Beneath the turquoise waters off Heron Island lies a huge, brain-shaped Porites coral that, in health, would be a rude shade of purplish-brown. Today that coral outcrop, or bommie, shines snow white. Prof Terry Hughes, a coral bleaching expert at James Cook University, estimates this living boulder is at least 300 years old. “If that thing had eyes it could have looked up and watched Captain Cook sail past,” he says, back on the pristine beach of this speck of an island 80km offshore at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. It is not just Heron’s grand old bommie that is freshly bleached. The surrounding tangle of staghorn corals, or Acropora, are splashed in swathes of white, or painted a dappled mosaic of greens and browns that betray the algae and seaweeds growing over the freshly killed coral. Hughes estimates 90% of those branching corals are dead or dying. Terry Hughes inspects the coral around the Heron Island research station Snorkelling above these blighted coral thickets evokes the imagery of forests annihilated by …

Public urged to join fight for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

Public urged to join fight for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

Published by skeptic

sydney —  Analysis of more than 25,000 images from divers, tourism operators and recreational boats on Australia’s annual Great Reef Census is getting under way. Now in its fourth year, one of the world’s fastest-growing conservation projects is helping to gauge the health and degradation of the world’s largest coral system, which is suffering from another mass bleaching event. The Great Reef Census collects a trove of images of what is arguably Australia’s greatest natural treasure. Each picture can contain vital information about the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Together, the images create a vital evaluation of the state of the ecosystem. The barrier reef stretches for 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast. It is under increasing threat from global warming, pollution and overfishing, as well as coral-eating crown of thorns starfish. The surveillance project is urging so-called citizen scientists around the world to help in the analysis of the images. The survey also uses artificial intelligence to scan much of the data. The public is being asked to analyze the images to see …

Asia’s next war could be triggered by a rusting warship on a disputed reef

Asia’s next war could be triggered by a rusting warship on a disputed reef

Published by skeptic

MANILA — In the most hotly contested waterway in the world, the risk of Asia’s next war hinges increasingly on a ramshackle ship past her time, pockmarked with holes, streaked with rust and beached on a reef. To buttress its claims in the South China Sea, the Philippines in 1999 deliberately ran aground a World War II-era landing ship on a half-submerged shoal, establishing the vessel as an outpost of the Philippine navy. The BRP Sierra Madre, which has remained on Second Thomas Shoal ever since, has now become the epicenter of escalating tensions between the Philippines and China — and a singular trip wire that could draw the United States into an armed conflict in the Pacific, say officials and security analysts. A Philippine supply vessel was hit with water cannons by the China Coast Guard on March 23 on its way to bring provisions to the Sierra Madre. (Video: Armed Forces of the Philippines) China claims the vast majority of the South China Sea and, in recent months, has ramped up efforts to …

Culling predatory starfish conserves coral on the Great Barrier Reef

Culling predatory starfish conserves coral on the Great Barrier Reef

Published by skeptic

A diver injecting vinegar into a crown-of-thorns starfish as part of the culling programme CSIRO A culling programme has succeeded in protecting key areas of the Great Barrier Reef from voracious coral-eating starfish. Scientists who analysed the outcome say the effort should be expanded to conserve more of the reef. Crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) are relentless feeders on nearly all species of coral within Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Each starfish can reach 1 metre in diameter and eat 10 square metres of coral reef each year. The starfish are native to the reef, but it is thought increasing nutrients pouring into the reef’s waters from agriculture and other human factors have increased their numbers and worsened the destruction of corals. Between 1985 and 2012, they accounted for 40 per cent of the region’s coral loss. During a major reef-wide eruption of the starfish between 2012 and 2022, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority carried out a large-scale culling programme. Teams of divers inject the starfish with a single shot of either vinegar or ox bile, …

Most of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering from coral bleaching

Most of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering from coral bleaching

Published by skeptic

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing one of its worst bleaching events since monitoring began nearly four decades ago, authorities say, with much of the famed reef showing signs of damage as warming ocean temperatures blight reefs worldwide. Bleaching occurs when heat-stressed coral turn white after expelling symbiotic algae that provide food and color. It’s a result of abnormal ocean temperatures in the past year that scientists worry could represent a major change to Earth systems. In the Great Barrier Reef marine park, 73 percent of the reefs surveyed have prevalent bleaching — which means that more than 10 percent of the coral cover is bleached, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which manages the area, said Wednesday. Very high and extreme bleaching was observed across nearly 40 percent of the reef system. “Climate change is the greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef, and coral reefs globally,” said Roger Beeden, the authority’s chief scientist. “The Great Barrier Reef is an incredible ecosystem, and while it has shown its resilience time and time again, …

Mayorkas impeachment trial; coral reef mass bleaching

Mayorkas impeachment trial; coral reef mass bleaching

Published by skeptic

Good morning. You’re reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day. Today’s top news The Democratic-led Senate will kick off the impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today. He’s only the second Cabinet secretary to be impeached in U.S. history. Mayorkas is accused of allegedly failing to enforce immigration laws. Many Democrats have called for a motion to dismiss the trial. Senators could reach an agreement to debate the articles of impeachment tomorrow. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in roughly 150 years. As House Republicans targeted him he was involved in Senate negotiations on a bipartisan bill to change administration border policies. Go Nakamura/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Go Nakamura/Getty Images Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in roughly 150 years. As House Republicans targeted him he was involved in …

Saltwater anglers in Florida catch and release reef fish

Saltwater anglers in Florida catch and release reef fish

Published by skeptic

University of Miami Marine Sciences student Lauren Hayes with her catch, a 7 or 8 pound mutton snapper, which was released and returned to its reef habitat more than 100 feet below the surface. Greg Allen hide caption toggle caption Greg Allen University of Miami Marine Sciences student Lauren Hayes with her catch, a 7 or 8 pound mutton snapper, which was released and returned to its reef habitat more than 100 feet below the surface. Greg Allen MIAMI — Saltwater recreational fishing is a big part of Florida’s tourist economy. Anglers take more than 40 million saltwater fishing trips each year in Florida in hopes of hooking a grouper, snapper or mahi mahi. But strict regulations on seasons and the species that can be taken mean that more than half of the fish caught on a typical trip are returned to the water. Fishing guides, charter boat captains and marine fisheries officials are spreading the word how to make sure the fish that are released live to fight another day. From Texas to North …

Extreme coral bleaching could spell worst summer on record for Great Barrier Reef, authority says | Great Barrier Reef

Extreme coral bleaching could spell worst summer on record for Great Barrier Reef, authority says | Great Barrier Reef

Published by skeptic

The Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of what could be its worst summer on record with a widespread and extreme coral bleaching event coming on top of floods, two cyclones and outbreaks of coral-eating starfish, according to an official Australian government report. The “summer snapshot” report released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science said: “Compared [with] previous summers, cumulative impacts have been much higher this summer and a widespread bleaching event is still unfolding.” The report says 39% of 1,080 individual reefs surveyed from the air had experienced either very high (61-90% coral cover bleached) or extreme (more than 90%) levels of bleaching. Such high levels had been observed on reefs in all three regions of the park, which is a world heritage-listed natural wonder, but the most heat stress had occurred in the south. The reef marine park, covering an area the size of Italy and including 3,000 individual reefs, is in the middle of a fifth mass bleaching in only eight years …

Aerial video shows mass coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef amid global heat stress event – video | Environment

Aerial video shows mass coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef amid global heat stress event – video | Environment

Published by skeptic

Scientists have recorded widespread bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef as global heating creates a fourth planet-wide bleaching event. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch, 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs have been experiencing heat stress high enough to cause bleaching ► Subscribe to Guardian Australia on YouTube Source link

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers most severe coral bleaching ever recorded

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers most severe coral bleaching ever recorded

Published by skeptic

The Great Barrier Reef — a colorful and iconic natural wonder off the coast of Australia that spans an area of 133,000 square miles (344,400 square kilometres) — is suffering potentially unprecedented bleaching due to climate change. Bleaching occurs when coral become stressed due to high temperatures or lack of nutrients and expel the algae that live symbiotically within it. This causes it to turn a pale, bone-white color and eventually kills the coral. According to a report last week by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, more than half of the 1,000 reefs analyzed (out of more than 2,900 in total) had either high, very high or extremely high levels of bleaching. Only a quarter were relatively unaffected. Perhaps most ominously, the bleaching in many regions stretched as far down as 18 meters (roughly 60 feet). Overall it is the fifth mass bleaching event to impact the reef in eight years. “I feel devastated,” Dr Selina Ward, a marine biologist and former academic director of the University of Queensland’s Heron Island Research Station, …