Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is under threat

The giant coral reef Great Barrier Reef, off Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland, is affected by so-called mass bleaching.

The phenomenon means that the corals in the world’s largest coral reef are left pale, or in the worst case, dying.

– This is disturbing news for everyone who loves and depends on the reef, says research director David Wachenfeld at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).

– Due to extreme heat

Mass bleaching is caused by persistently high water temperatures causing the corals to get rid of the algae zooxanthellae, which give them nutrition and colour.

It is the fifth time since 2016 that the phenomenon has hit the famous reef.

The first time this happened, during the reef’s 500-year history, was according to AIMS in 1998.

– The mass bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef is part of a global pattern of extreme heat, which is due to climate change, says Dr Wachenfeld.

As Dagbladet has written, 2023 was the warmest year that has so far been measured.

Although it is too early to determine how serious the bleaching will be this year, concern is now spreading among sports divers and others who have allowed themselves to be fascinated by the once so colorful Great Barrier Reef.

Potential disaster

Many tourists come to the surface disappointed after a dive this spring.

– You can see it on their faces, says diving instructor Elliot Peters to the Guardian.

– There is definitely sadness and a guilty conscience, he says of the reactions when he explains to customers why the corals are white.

The Guardian writes that, according to a report from 2017, there were a total of 64,000 jobs linked to tourism around the huge reef.

For the tourism industry, it is therefore a disaster if the Great Barrier Reef becomes permanently white. As a result, many people have been anxious to talk about it.

– By the time it is communicated to a consumer in London or Shanghai, the received message may have become that “the reef is not worth visiting anymore”. That is the challenge for the tourism industry, says tourism professor Daniel Gschwind at Griffith University to the Guardian.