There’s hope that an innovative idea may have what it takes to help save the beleaguered Great Barrier Reef. For the first time, Coral IVF babies have themselves reproduced on a previously degraded reef, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) announced Monday. “We couldn’t be more excited to see that these coral babies have grown […]
The UN World Heritage Committee has proposed to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef‘s World Heritage status due to climate change and the Australian government isn’t happy about it. The World Heritage Committee is a group of 12 nations, chaired by China. If the status of the reef is downgraded, it can affect the tourism revenue […]
By Hannah Thomasy On its own, a single sea cucumber may not be very impressive. But get enough of these floppy, faceless creatures together, and they—or, more specifically, their poop—can physically and biochemically reshape a coral reef habitat. In a recently published study, an Australian research team used drone surveys, satellite imagery, and observations of […]
By Dana M Bergstrom, Euan Ritchie, Lesley Hughes and Michael Depledge In 1992, 1,700 scientists warned that human beings and the natural world were “on a collision course.” Seventeen years later, scientists described planetary boundaries within which humans and other life could have a “safe space to operate.” These are environmental thresholds, such as the […]
Australian scientists have discovered a massive detached coral reef in the Great Barrier Reef. It is the eighth detached reef discovered in the northern Great Barrier Reef and the first to be discovered in over 120 years. According to The Guardian, detached reefs are not part of the main body of the Great Barrier Reef […]
Australian researchers captured a stunning scene that looks like something out of Finding Nemo. The drone the scientists used recorded approximately 64,000 green turtles migrating near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for nesting season, as CNN reported. The footage from the Queensland Government’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) spotted the turtles congregating at the world’s […]
A healthy coral reef is a noisy place. “You’ve got this constant crackling sound. … That’s the sound of snapping shrimp,” says Steve Simpson of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. “Then on top of that, pops, grunts, growls, trumpeting sounds, whooping sounds … and these are generally made by fish that are […]
The Great Barrier Reef is in trouble. The Australian government is trying to buy its crown jewel some time, but is it willing to support what the reef needs most — a reduction in emissions? A few weeks ago, the world’s greatest coral reef suffered its third major bleaching event in five years, the most […]
The Great Barrier Reef‘s third mass bleaching event in five years is also its most widespread, according to new data released Tuesday. Professor Terry Hughes, director of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University, spent nine days in a plane surveying 1,036 reefs from the air, The Guardian reported. He […]