As a result of extremely high temperatures on the Australian east coast, the Great Barrier Reef is again threatened by coral bleaching, according to experts. The corals are already showing signs of stress due to warmer-than-average seawater, The Age newspaper quoted David Wachenfeld, the chief scientist at the marine parks authority responsible for the reef (GBRMPA), as saying on Wednesday.
It would be the fourth bleaching in just six years, following 2016, 2017 and 2020. Smaller bleaching has already been reported in the ocean off some locations such as Cooktown, Townsville and Mackay. It is currently summer in the southern hemisphere, and Australia recently reported some heat records.
“We’re two-thirds of the way through summer now, there’s a pretty big build-up of heat stress out there, and the next four weeks are absolutely critical,” Wachenfeld said. Sea temperatures for most of the reef have mostly been between 0.5 and 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than normal since the start of summer, he said. How severely the unique reef, which stretches over more than 340,000 square kilometers, will ultimately be damaged, now depends on the weather in the coming weeks.
In order to save the Great Barrier Reef, extreme measures worldwide to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as local measures are urgently needed, Wachenfeld said. But Australia itself has one of the highest CO2emissions per capita and is one of the largest coal exporters in the world. As more and more countries commit to fighting global warming, the conservative government in Canberra is signaling that it intends to stick with fossil fuels in the long term.