Mass bleaching has killed more than a third of the coral in the northern and central parts of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, though corals to the south have escaped with little damage, scientists said on Monday.
Researchers who conducted months of aerial and underwater surveys of the 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) reef off Australia’s east coast found that around 35 percent of the coral in the northern and central sections of the reef are dead or dying, according to the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland state.
“It’s about the worst we’ve ever seen on the Great Barrier Reef. That is a very dramatic loss,” Professor John Pandolfi at the University of Queensland told the Associated Press.
“So put it into context, we’ve lost about 25 to 35 percent of the coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef over the last 30 years. But this particular event has occurred in a single season. So, this is as bad as it gets and we’re all very concerned about what it means for the continuity of the Great Barrier Reef.”
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Last year, the United Nations’ heritage body expressed concern about the state of the Great Barrier Reef and urged Australia to boost its conservation efforts.
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Following the release of the bleaching report on Monday, Australian politicians, who are in the midst of an election campaign, jumped on the issue, with the opposition Labor Party pledging to create a 500 million AUS dollars (359 US dollars) fund for better management and research of the reef.
The government meanwhile, announced that if their party is re-elected, the government would invest 6 million AUS dollars (4.3 million US dollars) to helping combat the crown-of-thorns starfish, which feast on coral.
“The decision of the World Heritage Committee last year was not to put the Great Barrier Reef on the endangered list and the Chairman of the World Heritage Committee, Maria Bohmer, the German Chairman of the Committee, said that our management, that is to say Australia’s management of the Great Barrier Reef was a world class exemplar of coral reef management,” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
“So there is no question that we are doing a good job. Now going to coral bleaching caused by global warming, plainly as I said last night in the debate that requires a global solution.”
The extent of the damage, which has occurred in just the past couple of months, has serious implications, researchers said.
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Though bleached corals that haven’t died can recover if the water temperature drops, older corals take longer to bounce back and likely won’t have a chance to recover before the next bleaching event occurs, he said.
Coral that has died is gone for good, which affects other creatures that rely on it for food and shelter.
The damage is part of a massive bleaching event that has been impacting reefs around the world for the past two years.
Experts say the bleaching has been triggered by global warming and El Nino, a warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide.
Hot water puts stress on coral, causing it to turn white and become vulnerable to disease.