Top Reef Scientist: Sixth GBR Mass Bleaching Event Underway; This Makes Four In Last Seven Years
One of the world’s leading coral scientists claims a sixth mass bleaching event is unfolding across the Great Barrier Reef, with official monitoring flights now under way all along the Queensland coastline. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) has confirmed monitoring flights are being conducted “along the length and breadth” of the 2,300km world heritage reef.
But the authority is not due to make a formal update on conditions over the reef, or the initial findings from those flights, until Friday. The development comes less than a week before the start of a 10-day United Nations monitoring mission to the reef ahead of a crucial meeting of the world heritage committee in June.
Prof Terry Hughes, a leading expert on coal bleaching at James Cook University, said he had received a “flood of reports from the field” of bleached corals in the last two weeks. Rising ocean temperatures driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases have caused five mass bleaching events along the reef in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020. Hughes told the Guardian he believes a sixth mass bleaching event is now unfolding, and that it was not mild or local.
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Hughes said: “We all breathed a sigh of relief because corals that were pale in December regained their colour in January and February. But in the last three weeks there have been reports of moderate to strong bleaching all along the reef.” Observations from the Bureau of Meteorology show water temperatures at between 1C and 2C above average across wide areas of the reef.
Link to tweet
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/17/great-barrier-reef-hit-by-sixth-mass-bleaching-event-leading-coral-scientist-says
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