Another mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef has been confirmed.
Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching.
The bleaching was found after just one day of new aerial surveys.
The Great Barrier Reef has been closely monitored for the past few years due to bleaching concerns.
The first survey for 2017 was conducted on Thursday by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, over the area between Cairns and Townsville in northern Queensland.
Warmer water temperatures resulted in the widespread bleaching of large areas of coral in the northern reef last year.
It resulted in the largest die-off of corals ever recorded on the reef.
Scientists estimated that two thirds of coral coverage died in a 700km stretch of reef north of Port Douglas in far north Queensland.
It is too soon to know how this year’s bleaching event compared to that seen last year.
4 Responses
so sad for fish and coral
this is very sad and also for the fishes and sea creatures in the reef
super sad that this this is happining again hope it will survive ):
So sad ?