The Great Barrier Reef – Too Big to Fail?

The Great Barrier Reef spans over an area of 344,000 sq km and is comprised of over 3000 individual reefs. It can be seen from outer space. It is an Australian icon. It is a world icon.
The Reef supports a very productive tourism and fishing industry that keeps that keeps regions like the Whitsundays economy in the black.
Unfortunately, the reef faces a very uncertain future.
For those who live and work in the Whitsunday region, the Reef has always been there and will always be there. It is too big to fail.
But now, scientists are telling us a different story. The health of the Reef is declining. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) states that the greatest threat to the Reef is climate change. One of the most significant impacts of climate change is coral bleaching.
Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. In a prolonged bleaching event, the corals may die.
Large or mass coral bleaching events were virtually unheard of prior to 1998. But times have changed, and the Reef has now suffered through 7 mass bleaching events. The most recent and most destructive, occurred in 2024.
Recent surveys completed by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in the southern section of the Reef found the single largest annual decline in hard coral cover in that area since monitoring started in the mid-1980s, with coral cover dropping by 41% in 2024.
The future of the Reef is dependent on the world coming together to combat climate change. This will require a rapid transition away from fossil fuels like coal and gas and moving to renewables. Time is not on our side.

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Contributed by Whitsunday Conservation Council.

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