A UN-backed mission to the Great Barrier Reef has concluded the world’s biggest coral reef system should be placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger.
There has been a mixed response to Australia’s $700 million plan to combat water pollution on the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest reef system. The nine-year Australian plan promises to fund projects that reduce erosion and pesticides and fertilizers running off farmland into the sea.
Scott Morrison will announce $1 billion over nine years for ground and water programs for the Great Barrier Reef when he visits the area on Friday. The Prime Minister said the $1 billion would extend the federal government’s investment under the Reef 2050 Plan to more than $3 billion.
Reef fish, such as emperors, tropical snappers and rockcods, help keep numbers of crown-of-thorns starfish in check on the Great Barrier Reef, according to a new study from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
Hopes that enough of the Great Barrier Reef could escape global heating long enough for it to recover have been challenged by research finding less than 2% of its coral reefs have escaped bleaching since 1998.
In place of its normal load of cars and vans, the repurposed ferry boat sported a mobile science laboratory and a large fan on its deck as it left Townsville, Australia, in March.
At 10.5 metres wide, four centuries old and twice the size of its nearest cousin, an “exceptionally large” coral has been discovered on the Great Barrier Reef – the widest known in the area.
The Great Barrier Reef has not been added to the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites that are "in danger", following strong lobbying from Australia.
Australia on Friday avoided having the Great Barrier Reef listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO, despite extensive climate change-fuelled damage to the ecosystem's corals.
After years of climate-worsened damage to its vibrant corals, Australia's vast Great Barrier Reef could this week be added to UNESCO's list of endangered World Heritage sites.
