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[Beefy]

A mass bleaching event is taking its toll on the Great Barrier Reef for an unprecedented second year in a row, a Queensland government agency has confirmed.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has declared widespread damage from an underwater heatwave after a single day of aerial surveys between Cairns and Townsville on Thursday.

The authority’s David Wachenfeld told the ABC the survey findings “regrettably” gave the agency enough evidence to declare another mass bleaching event, following the worst to date in 2016 which killed off 22% of coral.

A repeat of mass bleaching compounds fears for the survival of already-stressed coral, whose recovery since 2016 has been challenged by stubbornly high sea surface temperatures, including through winter.

The scale of bleaching will be confirmed through further surveys by the agency and reef scientists but it is likely to take at least six months before the death rate of coral is known.

Garner, who has been documenting the bleaching with Greenpeace, said: “I’ve been photographing this area of the reef for several years now and what we’re seeing is unprecedented.

“In these photos nearly 100% of the corals are bleaching and who knows how many will recover? Algae is already beginning to overgrow many of the corals.

WWF oceans campaigner Richard Leck said he was “shocked and saddened by what is unfolding”.

“Scientists warned that without sufficient emissions reductions we could expect annual mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef by 2050,” he said. “Consecutive bleaching events have arrived 30 years early.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-fear-heatwaves-impact?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Crazy that The Great Barrier Reef looks like it won't survive most of our lifetimes.

 

[Piers]

Oh boy, how will they manage a turn around for this -- if any at all?

 

[Aztechnology]

I really want to go to AUS and see it before it's gone. I don't even know what they can do at this point. Simply put, most nation's don't care enough.

 

[NewGame]

If yanks want to understand what's happening, watch this video. More reef related after 4:00

https://youtu.be/fUGkR-bwIhw

Edit: This one even better

https://youtu.be/KFvIBlrG3h0

 

[hydragonwarrior]

I really want to go to AUS and see it before it's gone. I don't even know what they can do at this point. Simply put, most nation's don't care enough.

We'll care when it's gone though, so there's that.

 

[HowZatOZ]

Goodbye tourism. You would think with how much money the reef pulls in for my state they'd actually give a shit but hey politics. Fuck this world. Thank God I got to see it when I was younger.

 

[Jack The Nipper]

Goodbye tourism. You would think with how much money the reef pulls in for my state they'd actually give a shit but hey politics. Fuck this world. Thank God I got to see it when I was younger.

This is the issue, people care money more than anything. Rather it's for seeing this or for oil gas etc People are more into money than each other. You speak it and think it just as they do, this is the issue for Earth in general.

 

[Maximo]

Goodbye tourism. You would think with how much money the reef pulls in for my state they'd actually give a shit but hey politics. Fuck this world. Thank God I got to see it when I was younger.

Sadly our government is too busy filling its pockets to care.

 

[Breads]

That's awful for sure but the asshole in me is screaming that by virtue of there being a second year the precedent is self evident.

 

[kess]

The Sekiseishoto corals off of Okinawa are nearly dead, too.

 

[ATXAlchemy]

We'll care when it's gone though, so there's that.

Actually, we still won't.

We only will if it directly impacts us. Like for example, when ant nations start building nukes and launch them on human colonies.

 

[hateradio]

If yanks want to understand what's happening, watch this video. More reef related after 4:00

https://youtu.be/fUGkR-bwIhw

Edit: This one even better

https://youtu.be/KFvIBlrG3h0

Delightful. I learned so much. Australia is killing the reef. Thanks, Arsetralia!

 

[Plum]

You'd think Trump would intervene after watching Finding Dory.

...nah but seriously this is goddamned tragic. Australia and, to a smaller extent, the rest of the world needs to get their goddamn shit together because once it's gone, it's gone for a long, long time.

 

[DontBeThatGuy]

Oh boy, how will they manage a turn around for this -- if any at all?

Expect the worst.

 

[waveuponwave]

RIP corals

 

[metalslimer]

Guess I'll never see it

 

[GK86]

.

 

[Zackat]

I wrote a pretty big research paper about the acidification of the oceans in college. Reading all the journal articles about this painted a depressing picture. This was several years ago now, so I imagine it has only gotten worse.

 

[SCULLIBUNDO]

Glad I went there a couple of years ago. Amazing place. Will be a great shame if it dies completely.

 

[Killa Sasa]

As a relatively young person, it's hard not to have contempt for the boomers and those before them making what I would feel safe calling the majority of these decisions.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I've given in to the fact these will be dead and gone before I kick the bucket.

 

[Doopliss]

For reference:

 

[Alienfan]

The worst part is just how few Australians give a shit, we will be one of the first countries to feel the affects of climate change given how fucked our weather is already. Plus with how God damn awful our stance on immigration has been, I doubt many countries will accept us. But I guess most of these old fucks in power won't be alive, so it doesn't matter, but we have all ruined our country for future generations

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

The Great Barrier Reef was the largest living structure in the world and visible from space.

Obituary: Great Barrier Reef (25 Million BC-2016)
https://www.outsideonline.com/2112086/obituary-great-barrier-reef-25-million-bc-2016

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef

Often called "rainforests of the sea", shallow coral reefs form some of the most diverse ecosystems on Earth. They occupy less than 0.1% of the world's ocean surface, about half the area of France, yet they provide a home for at least 25% of all marine species,[1][2][3][4] including fish, mollusks, worms, crustaceans, echinoderms, sponges, tunicates and other cnidarians.[5]

 

[titiklabingapat]

The Great Barrier Reef as we know it is probably toast in the long run. The corals will have to move latitude, it seems like.

 

[Paz]

Here's an unrelated* video of our actual elected government bringing a lump of coal in to parliament and tossing it around while talking about how we don't need to be afraid of it, days before the biggest heatwave anyone in the country can remember: https://www.theguardian.com/global/...-brings-a-chunk-of-coal-into-parliament-video

*Unrelated according to the elected government who greenlit a new huge mine near the reef and continuously works to undo environmental protections and renewable energy efforts.