Great Barrier Reef has lost half its Coral since 1985. Guardian 2.10.12
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost more than half its coral cover since 1985, according to a new study. The loss has been spurred by a combination of factors including hurricanes, coral-eating starfish and coral bleaching.
The paper, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the most comprehensive survey of a reef system over such a long period. The researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science found that reef cover fell from 28 per cent to 13.8 per cent over the past 27 years, with two-thirds of the decline occurring since 1998.
The sobering findings highlighted how even the world’s most protected marine areas are under assault from natural forces and causes linked to the human activity that is resulting in climate change. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, featuring nearly 3,000 individual reefs within 133,205 square miles. A third of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is off-limits to fishing and collecting.
“We are basically losing an ecosystem that is so iconic for Australia and the rest of the world,” said institute scientist Katharina E. Fabricius, one of the paper’s authors.
Storm damage accounted for 48 per cent of the decline, scientists said, while crown-of-horns starfish contributed 42 percent. Coral bleaching, caused by warmer water, accounted for 10 percent of coral loss.
Researchers warned that Australian officials will have to step up efforts to curb controllable threats, such as coral-eating starfish, because they are easier to target than intense storms and rising ocean temperatures.
John Gunn, chief executive of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said scientists need to learn about the periodic population explosions of crown-of-thorns starfish, a native pest.
“The study shows that in the absence of crown-of-thorns, coral cover would increase at 0.89 percent per year, so even with losses due to cyclones and bleaching there should be slow recovery,” Gunn said in a statement.
Nutrient runoff appears to be fuelling the crown-of-thorns starfish boom: The authors note that these outbreaks occurred once in every 50 to 80 years before European agricultural runoff began. They now average once every 15 years.
Nancy Knowlton, a coral reef biologist at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, said the finding will be “a shock to the system” that could force Australians to focus on improving their water quality.
“If anyone’s going to do it, it’s going to be the Australians, because they really care about the Great Barrier Reef,” she said in an interview. She added that these measures will “buy you real time but not infinite time,” at which point countries will have to cut the carbon emissions that are raising sea temperatures and making the ocean more acidic.
At a conference on ocean acidification in Monterey, Calif., last week, Fabricius told reporters that tourists often get a distorted view of the reef because they visit the more pristine areas.
“But if you’re a research vessel and you go to the areas which are not prescribed, you see a very different picture,” she said, adding that corals will face an even greater challenge in the years ahead because carbon emissions are lowering the water’s pH. That, in turn, makes it harder for corals to form their skeletons.
At the current rate of loss, researchers said, the Great Barrier Reef will lose half of its coral cover again by 2022, putting it on par with the Caribbean. “It will be really very low in 10 to 15 years,” Fabricius said.
Queensland dismisses UN report that reef is 'at risk'. Guardian 4.6.12
Across the globe, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is recognised as one of the world’s natural wonders. But in Queensland, home to the vast, picturesque reef, the government is apparently less impressed. The state premier, Campbell Newman, has dismissed a report by the UN body UNESCO warning that the World Heritage-listed site is threatened by large-scale industrial development. Queensland is currently undertaking a major expansion of its ports to meet soaring Asian demand for coal and gas.
UNESCO, which sent an inspection team over in March, said that unless Australia substantially improved its management of the reef by early next year, it risked being officially listed as “in danger”. But Mr Newman declared: “We’re in the coal business. If you want decent hospitals, schools and police on the beat, we all need to understand that.”
He added: “We will protect the environment, but we are not going to see the economic future of Queensland shut down.” The state is one of Australia’s fastest growing and most economically buoyant areas, thanks to its rich reserves of coal and shale gas. As well as upgrading ports, it is building large offshore plants to process liquefied natural gas.
The report, released at the weekend, expressed particular concern about Gladstone, one of the gateways to the southern reef. Port authorities are carrying out a huge dredging operation, close to the reef, to make the harbour suitable for massive gas tankers and coal bulk carriers.
Local fishermen believe dredging is responsible for poor water quality and an outbreak of disease among marine life.
In 2010 a Chinese coal carrier ran aground on the reef, causing widespread damage to coral. Two weeks ago, there was a near miss involving another bulk carrier which drifted for hours after its engine failed.
The federal government gave a muted response to UNESCO’s report, with the Environment Minister, Tony Burke, saying that ministers were “acutely aware of the challenges facing” the reef, including climate change. He added that he had no power to halt projects which had already been approved. Mr Newman made clear that he had no intention of implementing one of the report’s main recommendations: that further developments be halted until a “strategic assessment” of the reef’s health had been carried out.
UNESCO noted “a continuing decline in the quality of some parts” of the reef and expressed “extreme concern” about the pace of coastal and port development. “The unprecedented scale of development affecting or potentially affecting [the reef] poses serious concerns over its long-term conservation,” it said.
Don Henry, chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, said: “To have a potential ‘in danger’ listing hanging over the reef is a national disgrace.”
Comments: >What Howard did a decade ago was nowhere near enough to maintain the GBR. The contamination starts at the top of the catchment, at the Dividing Range, with mining and agriculture.
Here's how to protect the Great Barrier Reef.
1. Resume the banks of all rivers draining to the Coral Sea, all the way inland to the Dividing Range.
2. Replace the dole with work schemes to replant all these river banks with native vegetation.
3. Replace all river access for grazing stock with in-paddock watering troughs (solar/wind-powered from the river).
4. Ban all mine drainage to rivers, even if the mine is flooded out, UNLESS the water leaving the minesite contains ZERO contaminants.
>You have to understand who the conservative premier really works for, and it isn't the citizens of his state nor his countrymen. His nose is deep in the trough and he'll be sure to get his fill before the next election comes around in four years time
>"Aussies, wake up to your national treasures." Oh! Didn't you know! We have! Oil, gas, iron ore, coal, and just about everything else. But it all belongs to landowners (Called miners) and they pay governments. The people only elect them - to say nice things of course!
> Queensland should exploit these resources to improve the prosperity of their state, but surely the wealth generated would make measures to protect the reef very affordable. Are we to understand that Campbell Newman is saying he doesn't give a damn about it?