2023-08-25 21:41:15
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could continue to deteriorate with seasonally warming ocean temperatures, with the country’s top marine science body saying it fears another massive coral bleaching this year.
ET with AFP • Posted on August 25, 2023 at 11:41 a.m., updated on August 25, 2023 at 11:42 a.m.
Parts of the reef showed promising signs of recovery until a bleaching event in 2022 shredded swaths of vibrant coral into a dull, sickly white mass.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science said that although the condition of the reef stabilized over a summer “relatively soft” in 2023, it remained fragile. The institute’s research director, David Wachenfeld, said the reef was “exposed to increased risk, with climate change leading to more frequent and severe bleaching episodes”.
The Australian Meteorological Office said it was “probable” that an El Nino weather phenomenon is developing in the country over the next few weeks, increasing ocean temperatures in the Pacific and posing a new risk of coral bleaching.
Globally, average ocean temperatures have consistently exceeded seasonal warm records since April. Mr. Wachenfeld said thata single major disturbance could be enough to reverse the reef’s recent recovery.
Earlier this year, a team of United Nations experts was able to remove this marvel from the list of heritage sites considered “a danger”. Unesco first sounded the alarm over the deterioration of the reef in 2010. Ocean heat waves caused massive coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022. According to the researcher Mike Emslie, even the smallest bleaching episode was enough to “to curb” reef recovery.
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