Bleaching Spreading Rapidly Through Southern Great Barrier Reef

[hatrack]

CORAL on the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching and scientists fear the above-average water temperatures will devastate the southern part of the natural wonder. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has received reports that half the corals on the Keppel Islands have bleached and 30 per cent of some coral communities at Heron Island have turned white.

When water temperatures rise one to two degrees above average, the colourful plant part of the coral gets booted out, leaving it appearing bleached. Corals can recover, but if the heat persists, or if bleaching happens too frequently, they die. Scientists have connected the increased frequency of bleaching to global warming, which raises sea temperature. After the hottest year on record, coral experts were on alert for hot areas of water that would push the corals beyond their heat limit.

Marine park authority staff will inspect Heron and Keppel islands next week and have briefed Environment Minister Ian Campbell on the situation. The authority's manager of climate change policy, Paul Marshall, told The Age last night that a few more weeks of clear sunny weather could bring on the widespread and severe bleaching seen in 2002. That event left 5 per cent of the reef's corals severely degraded or dead.

If the weather turned windy and cloudy, the potential crisis could be diverted, he said. "We have had such a warm start to the summer it has put the system in a very precarious state."


EDIT

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bleached-coral-raises-reef-fears/2006/01/19/1137553712171.html