Scientists Are Devastated by How Much of the Great Barrier Reef Has Been Bleached

"We wept."

21 March, 2018
Scientists Are Devastated by How Much of the Great Barrier Reef Has Been Bleached

New findings from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies show that just 7 percent of the expansive Great Barrier Reef has escaped coral bleaching, a process that turns the colorful reefs completely white after they've been exposed to a change in temperature or light for an extended period of time and completely drains their energy.

Bleaching does not always mean death for the coral, head of the ARC Centre Professor Terry Hughes told the Washington Post, but based on diving surveys Hughes and his team conducted, they've seen nearly 50 percent irreversible coral death in the northern half of the Reef. If the bleaching that hasn't killed the living reefs continues for too long, they will die too. Hughes showed a map of the expansive bleaching to his students, he tweeted, "and then we wept."

[twitter ]https://twitter.com/ProfTerryHughes/status/722512223067721728" >

Head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch Mark Eakin told the Post these findings are exactly as heartbreaking as they'd predicted it would be months ago: "This is, by far, the worst bleaching they've seen on the Great Barrier Reef," he said. "Our climate model-based Four Month Bleaching Outlook was predicting that severe bleaching was likely for the [Great Barrier Reef] back in December. Unfortunately, we were right." 

There is research to suggest the corals have a coping mechanism that could help them retain their color and energy during a brief change in temperature, but as oceans continue to warm, there is less of a chance they'll be able to do so.​

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Credit: Cosmopolitan
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