The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most well known natural landscapes in the world and Eastern Australia’s pride and joy. Tourists from all over the world flock to the reef for snorkeling, scuba diving and other under water adventures. But how many of those visitors or members of the general public know that the beautiful and beloved coral reef is actually being destroyed?
In recent weeks, an obituary was published pronouncing the Great Barrier Reef dead. The public shock and outcry quickly followed. But some leading scientists and reef experts beg to differ. So is the Great Barrier Reef really dead or not?
Background on the Great Barrier Reef
As of 2016, the Great Barrier Reef is over 25 million years old. It is located off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest living structure and is visible even from space. The reef stretches 1400 miles long and is actually comprised of 2900 individual reefs and 1050 islands. Over 1625 species of fish, 450 species of coral, 220 types of birds and 30 types of whales and dolphins call the Great Barrier Reef home. The reef also supports over 70,000 jobs in the tourism industry.
The Great Barrier Reef first gained fame in 1770 as Captain James Cook, a European explorer, became the first to navigate its water. Over 200 years later, in 1981, UNESCO named the Great Barrier Reef a World Heritage Site.
How the reef is hurting
Unfortunately, the Great Barrier Reef has faced many threats and endured harsh destruction over the years. One of the biggest issues facing the reef is mass coral bleaching. When water temperatures rise, algae produces more oxygen which is toxic to coral reefs. Because the algae is now poisonous to them, the coral rejects the algae. By rejecting the algae, the coral starves and turns white - known as coral bleaching. The coral will die in a matter of months if the water temperatures do not return to normal.
By 2000, mass bleachings of the Great Barrier Reef were a common occurrence. In April of this year, scientists discovered the most severe coral bleaching event had hurt over 93% of the Great Barrier Reef.
Climate change and increased global warming are mainly to blame for the warmer waters surrounding the reef. Oceans are also absorbing more carbon which leads to increased acidity that dissolves the reef. Many point to the oil and mining companies present in and around the reef as part of the problem. In the 1960s, the Queensland government began leasing large parts of the reef to these companies. And just recently they approved the largest coal mine in their history to set up shop in the Great Barrier Reef. They even pressured the UN to remove the Great Barrier Reef from the UN’s report on the impacts of climate change because they were concerned that the negative news would deter tourists.
The infamous obituary and expert responses to it
The Great Barrier Reef’s controversial obituary was published in Outside Magazine by Rowan Jacobsen. Almost immediately, scientists and experts decried the article calling it sensational and hyperbolic. They were quick to point out that there is a huge difference between dead and dying.
On the whole, experts agree with Jacobsen that the reef is in grave danger. If his article was meant to alert the public to the urgent situation, he has definitely succeeded. However, some experts fear that the public will take Jacobsen’s obituary at face value; the reef is already dead so why should we bother doing anything now? There is concern that this overstatement will cause people to lose hope.
Greta Aeby, a coral expert with the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, believes that the public needed a dramatic approach like Jacobsen’s obituary. She has been working with coral and has seen these heartbreaking problems first hand for the last fifteen years. Aeby believes we needed this article but fears it isn’t enough.
Is there hope left?
Tory Hughes of the Australian Research Council is not thrilled that the message of the obituary was to give up. He wants to urge the public that we can and we must save the Great Barrier Reef - it isn’t too late! Large sections of the reef remain unbleached and it is time for the public and the Australian government to step up.
The Great Barrier Reef is a naturally resilient structure; it can bounce back. While rising ocean temperatures have damaged the reef and other coral structures around the world, all hope is not lost. It is up to the global society to take action and reverse these destructive trends in order to save the Great Barrier Reef before Jacobsen’s obituary becomes a true statement instead of a sensational satire.