The southern Great Barrier Reef is suffering from extensive coral bleaching due to heat stress, the reef’s managers said Wednesday, raising fears that a seventh mass bleaching event could be unfolding across the vast, ecologically important site.
Aerial surveys conducted last weekend by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and Australian Institute of Marine Science found bleaching was “extensive and fairly uniform across all surveyed reefs.” The teams flew over 27 inshore reefs in the Keppel Islands and Gladstone region and 21 offshore reefs in the Capricorn Bunkers off the coast of southern Queensland last weekend. Dr.
But we have also seen the recovery of coral and fish communities on many areas of reef – there just needs to be enough time between impacts to allow this recovery to occur,” Srinivasan said. Hotter ocean temperatures caused severe mass bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef in 2016, 2017 and 2020. Previous bleaching occurred in 1998 and 2002.