A new study published out of James Cook University in Australia has found that higher water temperatures have caused the worst coral bleaching in history on the Great Barrier Reef.
In the worst-hit areas, 67 percent of a 434-mile long stretch of the reef lost its coral over the last nine months. The areas of the reef further south managed with less damage, but this is mainly because these deeper areas are fed by cooler water coming in from the Coral Sea.
“Most of the losses in 2016 have occurred in the northern, most-pristine part of the Great Barrier Reef” Prof Terry Hughes told The Guardian. “This region escaped with minor damage in two earlier bleaching events in 1998 and 2002, but this time around it has been badly affected.” The water temperatures rose two degrees above their normal maximum, and that is what caused the severe bleaching. Hughes anticipated that the northern area would take 10-15 years to regain the coral lost in this die-off, but would be impacted further if a fourth bleaching event were to occur.
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The timing of this study is particularly significant because UNESCO is considering listing the reef on its list of "World Heritage Sites in Danger." The reef was considered for the designation in 2015, but instead decided that Australia should report back about its plan for long-term conservation by December 1, 2016. Since then, the director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has asked for a ban on all new coalmines in the country.
“We would expect that that report from Australia is going to cover all the significant things that have happened since June 2015 and whether there are changes in the picture of the management or the response that is needed,” said Tim Badman, director of the IUCN’s World Heritage Programme, which advises the Committee on the state of its natural world heritage properties. “The bleaching event is a new issue to be considered.”
The Australian government actually spent $400,000 to lobby against the "danger" designation, it was reported late last year.
"Through hard work and real policy change … we not only protected the reef from an in-danger listing and had it removed from the watch list, but we also saw Australia's management of the reef declared as a global role model by the World Heritage Committee," said environment minister Greg Hunt, whose department spent over $300,000 in travel expenses alone.
No word on what Hunt and his department have to say about the die off.
