Great Barrier Reef suffers as ocean temperatures rise

Most of the Great Barrier Reef
has suffered bleaching.

Scientists surveying the mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef say only 7 per cent of Australia's environmental icon has been left untouched by the event.

The final results of plane and helicopter surveys by scientists involved in the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce has found that of the 911 reefs they observed, just 68 had escaped any sign of bleaching.

The severity of the bleaching is mixed across the barrier reef, with the northern stretches hit the hardest.

 Overall, severe bleaching of between 60 and 100 per cent of coral was recorded on 316 reefs, almost all of them in the northern half of the barrier reef. Reefs in central and southern regions of the 2300 kilometre Great Barrier Reef have experienced more moderate to mild affects.

Read Tom Arup’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - "The Great Barrier Reef: 93% hit by coral bleaching, surveys reveal.”

Great Barrier Reef bleaching 'worst ever seen'

An aerial survey is revealing the worst bleaching ever seen on northern parts of the Great Barrier Reef, as the scientist leading the survey live-tweets the devastation and pleads for the world to take action on climate change.

Last week Terry Hughes, a professor at James Cook University and convener of the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce, told Guardian Australia he planned to hire a charter plane and map the bleaching to see how bad it was.

They would start from Cairns and fly north, he said. “We’ll expand that initial aerial survey to crisscross the whole northern region and map it all out.”

Now, using both planes and helicopters, Hughes has found what he says is the worst bleaching in the region he has ever seen.

Read The Guardian story - “Great Barrier Reef: aerial survey reveals extent of coral bleaching.”