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Expert: Scientists exaggerated coral bleaching story
175 Comments
Anecdotally, in early 2016, I spent over a week diving the GBR (24 dives) starting north from Cairns to Lizard Island and also a few dives out in the Coral Sea. I was surprised how great everything looked given all the stories of massive destruction. Aside from my day science/engineering job, I’m a certified dive instructor closing in on 500 dives worldwide. I’m not a marine biologist, but I know what good and bad reef conditions and fish populations look like. I was favorably impressed along the whole ribbon reefs (1-10) chain heading north from Cairns. I’m not saying that fisheries and reefs are not stressed by multiple factors, I’m saying get out in the world and see things for yourselves to get better perspective (as we hear a lot from Willis E). I shot dozens of hours of underwater footage and plan to go back in five years and in 10 years to compare.
I am very much a skeptic on CAGW (yes, there’s warming but it’s mostly natural and almost entirely beneficial). However, I do know that the oceans need to be better taken care of and a legitimate role of our US federal government (according to the US Constitution) is to put pressure on, and negotiate treaties with other countries in the area of ocean and fisheries protection. I support this (one of the few things our government is presently doing that is within constitutional bounds and that I support).
And one other comment: please try to eliminate your sunscreen use while in the water around coral reefs. Wet suits, dive skins, rash guards, etc are great alternatives. Thanks!
Forty years ago when I lived in North Queensland (Townsville) the same story was rife as was the Crown of Thorns starfish eating the corals to extinction. New coral grows. The old stuff dies off.
It’s like Earth Hour, when they show you a tiny portion of a suburb without lights and tell you the whole of the city has gone dark.
It has been removed from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority website, which published the rebuttal of the alarmism, but it did describe the previous bleaching in 1998 as 50% of the reef had at least 2% bleaching. Not dead but bleached.
I suspect that the 22% mortality is still a bit dodgy, especially considering the map in the link that shows how little has been surveyed. Missing is the very far north that probably has symbiotic algae of the same species but different strains that could handle the extra heat and sunshine.
June 3, 2016 9:40 pm
Not sure of this has been mentioned in other parts of WUWT but an associated story to this is that Australia’s ABC used fake coral bleaching images in their stories.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/abc-blasted-for-using-misleading-picture-of-great-barrier-reef-after-greenpeace-admitted-it-was-fake/news-story/cbf03cc5e4e7380688eda25aacfba166
Exactly Tom. I’ve been waiting for the ABC to get its guernsey. This country will never progress until this tax payer-funded institution starts educating its presenters and its so-called investigative journalists start investigating. This once-great institution is becoming a millstone around our national neck, not only on environmental science but also its politically- correct stance in reporting a lot of other news. A pox on their house.
Sure Nick, but Environmentalists who are supposed to be the watchdog for nature distort or lie about it to the public many times, it is all over the place at Facebook where many closeminded warmists there beat the drum on this media manufactured lie for their cause. That damage is done Nicholas which angers me because it was an OBVIOUS LIE,by simply looking at the media claims.
Telling the truth to the public is what they should be doing.
That’s what you came to argue…poster claim of “non-story” vs one “frightening story” scientist opinion?
What the original article claimed was that an “expert”, Dr Reichelt, exposed the “exaggerations” of scientists. I drew attention to what the expert actually said, which was that there is a story. So then we are left with just the experts here.
Your mistaken assumption is that none here are experts in corals. Depending on your undoubtedly skewed definition (Alarmist Hughes an expert, the national reef commission not?) some here are experienced divers who have written extensively about corals and AGW and ‘ocean acidification’ and are sufficiently expert for these purposes. As is Jim Steele, who previously explained the most common and benign form of bleaching.
June 3, 2016 10:04 pm
Great Barrier Reef board members accused of conflict of interest over links to mining firms…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/reef-board-members-in-conflict-of-interest-claims/5052558
Typical Spaatch.
You could have disputed the article with data or examples of where they are wrong, but no. You put up a link accusing them of having “links” with the devil. The classic religious green response.
I bet that even if you were given indisputable evidence that James Cook Uni and Prof Hughes had manipulated the data that you would think this was ok because it was all for the cause.
June 3, 2016 10:05 pm
Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
What other falsehoods are environmental activists like Tim Flannery and complicit media – ABC, Fairfax, BBC, CNN etc etc, willing to spread in order to push their ever-dangerous global warming agenda?
I say dangerous, as this particular incident of blatant climate change alarmism endagers Australia’s international reputation, especially its tourist industry and the livelihoods of the good people who are employed in the region.
Who will be made accountable or held responsible for the blatant lies, exaggeration of data and wreckless alarmism? No one, of course. Because again, the worst any Reef or climate change alarmist can ever be accused of is an excess of virtue, in order to “Save the planet”.
Ask Tim (the flim flam man) Flannery if he feels any responsibility for the millions (billions?) spent on desalination plants sitting idle (still costing millions to maintain on ‘maintenance mode’) around Australia because he crusaded that all the dams would run dry. No he doesn’t give a flying rats – to be sure, to be sure if it dribbles out of his mouth it’s bullshitzer!!
He’ll be OK if the Liberals win.
If Labor wins then you can expect the usual left-wing politicisation to occur and he may be in trouble.
If the Greens obtain the balance of power in the Senate he’ll be in more doo-doo than a Werribee duck.
But the Reef will still be OK no matter which political persuasion is in power.
Flannery is Australia’s version of Paul Ehrlich. Like a sort of “reverse Cassandra” (she who always prophesied doom correctly but was never believed) they continue to preach doom and disaster, have never been right yet, but for some reason are always believed.
Shame that Reichelt felt the need to nod in the direction of the scaremongers but no surprise that Nick Stokes would weigh in (can never resist a bit of stirring, Nick, can you). Corals do what they do and they’ve survived longer than we have in warmer conditions (which they like) and colder conditions (which they are less keen on) and more genuinely acid conditions (which many of them can tolerate quite well).
So let’s just leave them to get on with it and concentrate on things that really matter, eh!
June 3, 2016 10:23 pm
Hi from Oz. My understanding (from a recent WUWT story IIRC) is that ‘bleached’ coral is not ‘dead’, the hard (non-living) calcium carbonate ‘polyp hotel’ sub-structure has just been vacated by the polyps that built it (and give it its vivid colours). They apparently vacate because the water conditions are temporarily unsuitable (problems with temperature, turbidity, cyclones, lack of food, COTS, etc.). When the water conditions improve (but may be 5-10 years later), polyps return and repopulate the coral and then Voila, the coral is ‘alive’ again. But the rent-seekers seem to always forget to mention this wee detail about coral regeneration, and prefer to cry ‘the whole Reef is DYING!!!’ in order to keep their scam going. BTW – the rent-seekers seem to be getting really worried down here in Oz because they just released a ‘report’ that puts a price to ‘Save the Reef’ of A$16 billion. Sounds like a last desperate attempt to blackmail the next Australian government into gold-plating their future, because we are in the middle of a Federal election campaign here.
From my reading it MAY take 5 to 10 years for some bleaching events to be reversed, but it can also be in as little as 6 months. It depends on the cause, and temperature changes are often the shortest lasting . That’s because while that particular polyp may not like that temperature, a different one can handle it just fine and moves into the emptied reef.
Also, killing water temperatures are transient. Like heat waves or cold snaps on land, these events temporarily make an area uninhabitable for species at the limit of their range.
The same, exactly opposite effect takes place here on the Canadian prairie. A series of mild winters will see non native species encroach and thrive, then a drought or extreme winter will kill them off. Nature doesn’t know not to colonize unstable places. Throw in pollution, viruses and what we don’t even know yet.
It depends on the bleaching. There are three types on our reefs here in South Florida.
1. Runoff pollution caused. The organic matter decomposes, releases trace hydrogen sulfide, and kills the coral polyps resulting in bleaching. Can take ~10 years for the reef to fully re-establish. H2S has a coral/shrimp/crab LD50 of 30ppb! I snorkeld the US National Park Service ‘Coral Trail’ off St. Croix USVI the year after a major hurricane and personally witnessed this type of pollution induced bleaching. Especially affected staghorn corals. Not so much brain corals. See also essay Shell Games for how Australian researcher Fabricius gamed this in her PNG studies in Milne Bay.
2. Transitional symbiont bleaching. The coral polyps are alive, and filter feed until a new symbiont suite is established. This is apparently most of the middle and southern GBR case at present. The transition is months, as the article reports. 75% recovery from a normal and natural event in 6 months.
3. Symbiont bleaching which does not reestablish, perhaps because of lack of suitablly adapted local symbionts given the degree of water change. In which case, the polyps are increasingly stressed from malnourishment and will eventually die (maybe 1-2 years). Then you have the up to 10 year recovery as new better adapted polyps repopulate the coral exoskeletons. This seems to be the case in some of the northern GBR sector, 22% of the total.
Ristvan, you forgot the big one. Cold.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/02/01/record-cold-in-florida-kills-reef-coral/
ACO, Nope. I was diving those reefs at that time. They bleached some (type 2); they did not die. Came back just fine that spring/ summer. And, slowly bleached again during summer when warm water returned and they had to again adjust symbionts. Was still visible during the late July recreational ‘bug’ catch (spiny lobster preseason free for all). That reef is about 300 meters off my condo balcony on the Atlantic beach in North Fort Lauderdale. Swim out from the beach with dive flag buoy. You can even snorkel the shallowest portions. No need for a dive boat unless visiting the deeper two of the three reef bands to spearfish grouper and snapper. There are at least 10 dive shops within a 2 mile radius of my place– for a good reason. Closest is just across A1A in the next block toward the InterCoastal. Get my dive stuff there.
BoyfromTottenham “My understanding (from a recent WUWT story IIRC) is that ‘bleached’ coral is not ‘dead’, the hard (non-living) calcium carbonate ‘polyp hotel’ sub-structure has just been vacated by the polyps that built it (and give it its vivid colours). ”
It isn’t even that bad. The polyps are home to algae (which give it the colour) in a loose symbiotic relationship. When the water temperature changes the polyps expel the algae and form another relationship with algae better suited to the water temperature.
Most of the time this happens within days. If it takes longer the polyps have to resort to filter feeding. If it takes too long the polyps may die (and leave vacant rooms in the hotel) but will be replaced by budding polyps nearby or by new coral after a mass spawning.
June 3, 2016 10:35 pm
It is all about blocking the Adani and Carmichael coal mines in Western Queensland. The lies start at the very beginning. They say run-off from the mines will damage the reef. The mines are hundreds of kilometres inland with the Great Dividing Range between the mines and the coast. So all streams run west away from the coast, not east towards the reefs.
From there various environmental groups funded by Greenpeace and WWF have engaged in lawfare to stop Adani going ahead despite the strictest possible environmental reports at state and federal level giving the go ahead.
The set-up of the mine and rail and port has cost $3billion so far and the owner is ready to walk away. He owns coal fired power plants in India and is responsible for spreading electricity to millions of people and to manufacturing in India. The Indian economy grew faster than China last year as they lifted themselves out of poverty. Yet this threatens trade between Australia and India because the Indians say it is too difficult to do business in Australia.
So here we have another case of the social justice people in Greenpeace and WWF deciding electricity is good for their business and lifestyle but it must no be shared amongst the poor.
Hypocrites hang your heads in shame.
“AllyKat June 3, 2016 at 11:50 pm
Especially if the “other” country is supposed to be relatively corruption free.”
Australia was a former British penal colony. At one time all one needed to do was steal a loaf of bread to be imported courtesy of The Crown. So, Australia likes to give the world the impression it is corruption free, which is not the whole truth. It’s difficult to do business here because of the various coloured “tape” businesses are tied up in, especially, green tape. It’s one reason why car making is no longer done here.
..The mid-east, fossil-oil $$$$ windfall, is never, ever, “media-demonized”, but fossil-coal is ? This is another Economic, Media-biased, money and manpower crippling subversion, (Stage 2) at its most blatant ……. …… ..Both fossils are only here now, because during life’s early prolific-evolution, Co2, was at 4,000 ppm. Today, at just 400 ppm ( rising at 1 millionth every 5 years). This is A. irrelevant ? B beneficial ? C normal ? D Uncontrollable ? You view is defiantly irrelevant, because the Media prostitutes says this is a disaster and all life sustaining-western (non-moslum) -productivity (particularly using the wrong fossil) should cease immediately. (That is how corrupt the media/ un/ eu etc. is, today). ………………Today in submarines, sailors breathe Co2 at 1,000 ppm, with no adverse effect because Co2 is an essential, trace (life / food growing) gas, (that turbo-charged the evolution of life on this (then very hot) but cooling planet). Oil and coal, seen now both as the fossil-remains, of the darling twins, (COALin and OILave), from their formative / baby , (hot) evolution years……………..As Co2 always follows temperature-changes, observable in winter, when Co2 follows the temperature down to, and @ur momisugly 150ppm, plants stop growing . When the season (temperature) changes up, the Co2 level (plant food) rushes back up and (plant) spring, is here again. (More Co2 = More food. duh) Farmers know this, (green-house managers deliberately pump in extra Co2 to boost plant growth) but the media makes sure, (any) real-world knowledge, is ridiculed (Stage 2. again) ….Since the last mini ice-age, the sun has been warming the world at 0.8* per century ( with or without us/ and has before us (and will continue after us))…… Consequently Co2 is also (beneficially for us) following temperature (up) at 1/millionth per 5 years. And since the un-corrupted data from satellites , (as expected), no detectable warming for 18 years and (balloon) troposphere-temperature readings are now back up to where it was, 58 years ago, (at the start of Al Bore’s “global-cooling” scare campaign ) and the media probably knows that too, but I digress (again)……, [rest trimmed. .mod]
[Your words will be more convincing with formatted complete sentences and paragraph organization. .mod]
MODERATOR — the above needs to be snipped. Anti-Moslem/conspiracy theory ranting.
[Noted. Thank you. .mod]
@ur momisugly Jack June 3. It is their livelihood, the same thing is happening all over the planet. Some of the ” Scientific” reports coming out in BC Canada are the same. ” Massive flooding combined with sea level rise and unprecedented rain falls in the next 50 years will lead to the inundation of the Fraser Valley and Vancouver” It makes your head explode!
I agree with you that it’s all about blocking coal mines (and also votes in the election) but I must point out that Adani and Carmichael are in the Burdekin catchment and water from there does flow to the reef lagoon. I know because I’ve been there- my brother in law has a cattle property very close nearby.
I’ve noticed – on the Internet, of course – this weird tendency to use “bias” for “biased”. I think it comes from sloppy pronunciation of the final consonant combined with insufficient reading and inadequate knowledge of the language. I suspect the same causes are responsible for “close minded” instead of “closed minded”. I’m waiting to see someone trying to sell a “use car”.
One that’s got me fuming is forecastED instead of forecast
and even more enraging is TREADED water instead of TROD
I noted it first some years ago and it seems to have become widespread
Tread/treading/trod
does no one teach English anymore, with regard to tenses?
I have also come across shined instead of shone, rather frequently ,
ie
her eyes/face shined with glee
he shined the light around the room.
I frequently see “shined” for “shone” in American novels. When “shine” means “emit or reflect light” the past tense should be “shone”, but when it means “make shiny” then I think “shined” would be acceptable. Or maybe not.
And aren’t you glad we’ve got this far without me banging on about commas or the dreaded “tow the line”?
June 3, 2016 10:39 pm
About that pure water from desalinization plants:
They could have designed a nice label of the sort “Stupendous Water from The Snowies” and marketed it world wide. Okay, to be honest it would have to be transported to and sold from one of the mountain towns, but that’s a small issue.
~~~~~
As for bleaching coral – this story is getting tedious.
June 3, 2016 10:45 pm
What other falsehoods are environmental activists like Tim Flannery and complicit media – ABC, Fairfax, BBC, CNN etc etc, willing to spread in order to push their ever-dangerous global warming agenda?
I say dangerous, as this particular incident of blatant climate change alarmism endagers Australia’s international reputation, especially its tourist industry and the livelihoods of the good people who are employed in the region.
Who will be made accountable or held responsible for the blatant lies, exaggeration of data and wreckless alarmism? No one, of course. Because again, the worst any Reef or climate change alarmist can ever be accused of is an excess of virtue, in order to “Save the planet”.
There have been whispers that coral bleaching never happened before the end of last century and has grown progressively worse since.
In fact, think El Nino and Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) as the root cause, neither have anything to do with industrial CO2.
http://astroclimateconnection.blogspot.com.au/2016/05/moderate-to-strong-el-nino-events-are.html
Well RoHa, when you consider that before 1950 almost nobody spent much time looking at coral, ther couldn’t have been may folks even concerned about it.
There’s a technology effect in play. I’ve noticed it in lots of fields. A new instrument comes out and we suddenly have the ability to measure something we could never measure before. A new telescope, some new medical device, the aqualung, all those things and more. Suddenly we have all this new information but no history with it. Then some idiot comes along and decides whatever he sees using one of these things is “alarming”. He’s never really studied it, but maybe he has a PhD in something so he gets taken seriously.
Maybe “sophomoric” is the term I’m looking for? Someone who has just enough information to be dangerous to himself and others?
@Bartleby. Exactly. Some common sense is required. Can’t just stick to the same old dogma.
When technology improved over the last few decades to allow measurements of parts per billion rather than parts per million, “dangerous” levels of pollutants were found in many more places than previously.
Pretty soon we will be able to measure parts per _trillion_ and then “pollutants” will be found _everywhere_ we look.
June 3, 2016 11:13 pm
This the latest gem from Flim-flam Flannery, quoted in yet another alarmist article in the Sydney Morning Herald on 3rd June:
“This great organism, the size of Germany and arguably the most diverse place on earth, is dying before our eyes. Having watched my father dying two years ago, I know what the signs of slipping away are. This is death, which ever-rising temperatures will allow no recovery from. Unless we act now.
Three-quarters of the Barrier Reef is alive, says the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
But when I turn on the television, you wouldn’t know that our greatest national treasure is on the brink of disappearing. It’s the same old claptrap about jobs and the economy, never mind the fact that it’s always the same, and it never improves no matter who is elected.”
So the government talking about jobs and the economy is ‘claptrap’, but a naturally-occurring event (coral polyps temporarily vacating some of their ‘coral hotels’) is faaar more important. May I live long enough to see justice done to him.
Flannery should wash his mouth out with carbolic, which is what he said CO2 turns into in the oceans.
http://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2016/01/fishy-science-ocean-acidification/
“Tim Flannery, head of Australia’s Climate Council, is of the view that CO2 falling into the ocean produces “carbolic acid” or phenol, that useful disinfectant which can still be bought on eBay in the form of soap bars. Flannery is, as always, correct in terms of the prevailing hysteria, if not real-world facts. His prophecy is affirmed by Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OAICA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which agree that
Too much carbon is flooding the ocean with carbolic acid, with devestating (sic) effects on life in the sea.”
June 3, 2016 11:38 pm
All the Suoer 97/98 El Niño coral bleaching recovered in 10 years (alarmists predicted it would take a century).
Another strong El Niño, another incidence of coral bleaching…. Imagine that…which will again recover in….10 years…
Alarmists inflate reality and make absurd and unfounded CAGW predictions to keep the myth alive…When these claims fail, their failure is not reported, and Alarmist just wait for the next one-off event to propagandize
The world is getting fed up with alarmists constantly crying wolf, when none exist…. Then the alarmist blame the absence of wolves on….CO2-induce wolf extinction,…
You can’t win with these fools.
the warm-water current that was affecting the east-coast, has now reached the west-coast , (with same effect) . So the sun is now a current ? Coral can’t survive without sun-light (that’s why it only grows neat the surface) . calcium is white, milk is white, crow-skin is white, so “bleaching ” (media weasel-word) is contagious ?
June 3, 2016 11:50 pm
Just in case you dont believe me hahah http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/welcome-to-australia-the-worlds-most-overregulated-nanny-state/news-story/49aa0a414ae87b9ef54e85b40af36b47
June 3, 2016 11:56 pm
I keep hearing about how our children and grandchildren are going to ask us why we did not take action to save the planet. I think they are much more likely to be cursing us for not being fiscally responsible, in between learning Mandarin and toiling to pay the interest on our debt to China.
Yes. It should. The link is paywalled in the UK. I can’t speak for the rest of the world ( Or I can later if I try some experimenting with my VPN ).
I’ve already made my displeasure known about the use of paywalled articles in main stories here. Paying a subscription for a site one might never visit again is not viable.
Yet funnily enough, here on my hols in China, where the likes of Google & Facebook are blocked, it works fine!
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/ee35952c5efabf991b2f062307f4cf53?width=650
June 4, 2016 12:06 am
the warm-water current that was affecting the east-coast, has now reached the west-coast , (with same effect) . So the sun is now a current ? Coral can’t survive without sun-light (that’s why it only grows neat the surface) . calcium is white, milk is white, crow-skin is white, so “bleaching ” (media weasel-word) is contagious ?
June 4, 2016 12:10 am
But even this more measured report does not mention that bleached coral os NOT DEAD. This short NOAA explanation says of bleached coral:
Quote:
Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality.
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html
So bleaching is a natural survival reaction of corals, and they will normally regain their alge after a short while and continue living just as vibrantly as before. It takes two years before bleached coral actually dies. So there is alarmism being built upon alarmism here.
R
June 4, 2016 12:18 am
I have been following this one. Professor Terry Hughes is from James Cook University in Far North Queensland Australia. Professor Terry Hughes is Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
A month ago he “surveyed” the Great Barrier Reef over a few days in a small chopper using a GoPro and SLR camera.
Remembering the Great Barrier Reef comprises the following according to Wiki.
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef system[1][2] composed of over 2,900 individual reefs[3] and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi).[4][5] The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia
This is quite a feat to complete over a few days……
Professor Terry Hughes managed to not only survey the Great Barrier Reef in this short time frame but also wrote a report. Terry described the Great Barrier Reef as “Fried”
The report strangely was delivered hot off the press to the Australian Broadcasting Commission, a government funded left leaning media outlet similar to BBC. The report naturally went to The Guardian and disseminated within hours to the Left Twitterati. As happens the report was picked up by the Main stream Media outside Australia and Professor Terry Hugh’s was accepted unchallenged and quickly became global fact.
Professor Terry Hughes had achieved his corrupted scientific objective.
The Great Barrier Marine Park Authority administers the Reef and is a very belated an light criticism of Professor Terry Hughes tax payer funded behaviour.
I believe the report was rushed to market because El Niño was waning, the damage to the GBR was grossly misreported and Professor Terry Hughes had to give it his best shot in the middle of an election campaign in Australia. The Left is strenuously attempting to chane government so they can progress their climate agenda.
Throughout history the catch cry of the left is
THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS.
A few salient factors. Professor Terry Hughes viewed shallow coastal coral which is invariably most affected by El Niño events.
Perhaps not commonly understood is that coral grows happily from depths of a few centimetres to depths up to 100 metres. Tidal movement along this coast is up to 10 metres, twice a day.
Also well documented is the coral spawning event at the start of summer each year. This truly is a Bucket List event. The reef becomes lick a muddy river from the all encompassing spawning event. The Great Barrier Reef is seeded via this natural reproductive event annually.
That a Professor could produce a false report which is not condemned by James Cook University and is accepted as fact by all media raises serious accountability issues.
Please feel free to circulate the above as far and as wide as you wish.
Brooke Mañana
This is a biggie. What makes it a biggie is that the Head of the Government-run department is speaking out against intentionally bias claims of climate change induced destruction of the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef: scientists ‘exaggerated’ coral bleaching
By Graham Lloyd -The Australian
There is growing scientific conflict over bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Tourism Queensland
Activist scientists and lobby groups have distorted surveys, maps and data to misrepresent the extent and impact of coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, according to the chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Russell Reichelt.
A full survey of the reef released yesterday by the authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science said 75 per cent of the reef would escape unscathed.
Dr Reichelt said the vast bulk of bleaching damage was confined to the far northern section off Cape York, which had the best prospect of recovery due to the lack of onshore development and high water quality.
The report emerged as Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten traded political fire on the reef’s future this week at the halfway point of the election campaign.
As Labor announced $500 million towards protecting the reef, the Opposition Leader said: “We will invest in direct environmental management. We will invest in science and research. We will invest in proper reef management.’’
He said if Australia did not spend the money on the reef, “it is in serious danger of being irreparably damaged. If we do not act, our children will rightly ask us why didn’t we.’’
…
The political debate and the release of the authority’s survey results highlights a growing conflict between the lead Barrier Reef agency and the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce headed by Terry Hughes.
Dr Reichelt said the authority had withdrawn from a joint announcement on coral bleaching with Professor Hughes this week “because we didn’t think it told the whole story”. The taskforce said mass bleaching had killed 35 per cent of corals on the northern and central Great Barrier Reef.
Dr Reichelt said maps accompanying the research had been misleading, exaggerating the impact. “I don’t know whether it was a deliberate sleight of hand or lack of geographic knowledge but it certainly suits the purpose of the people who sent it out,” he said.
“This is a frightening enough story with the facts, you don’t need to dress them up. We don’t want to be seen as saying there is no problem out there but we do want people to understand there is a lot of the reef that is unscathed.”
Dr Reichelt said there had been widespread misinterpretation of how much of the reef had died.
“We’ve seen headlines stating that 93 per cent of the reef is practically dead,” he said.
“We’ve also seen reports that 35 per cent, or even 50 per cent, of the entire reef is now gone.
“However, based on our combined results so far, the overall mortality rate is 22 per cent — and about 85 per cent of that die-off has occurred in the far north between the tip of Cape York and just north of Lizard Island, 250km north of Cairns. Seventy-five per cent of the reef will come out in a few months time as recovered.”
Former climate change commissioner Tim Flannery described diving on the Great Barrier Reef near Port Douglas recently as “one of the saddest days of my life”
…
Dr Reichelt said Dr Flannery’s language had been “dramatic” and “theatrical” and his prognosis, although of concern, was “speculative”. Dr Reichelt also rejected reports, based on leaked draft documents, that improving water quality would cost $16 billion.
He said the interim report had been rejected by a board of which he was member and “taken totally out of context” in media reports.