'Is this the end for The Great Barrier Reef?' asks Tom Arup

Tom Arup.

The Great Barrier Reef is often described as the largest living thing on the planet, but swimming over the coral reefs around Heron Island it is the little things that you notice.

Like the way the parrot fish gnaw at the bright coloured reefs for algae. Or how the fire coral shimmers in sunlight.

‘Bleaching does not necessarily lead to death. If water temperatures drop in time corals can start rebuilding their algae and recover within months.’

Heron Island has been lucky. It has been spared from the devastating mass coral bleaching unfolding elsewhere on the reef.

Read Tom Arup’s story in today’s Melbourne Age -  “Is this the end of the Great Barrier Reef?”