Disturbing new photographs taken at some of the most popular tourist spots have left scientists wondering when it will reach its "limit". Snapped by divers during an extensive survey, they show numerous sites have been degraded following serious and extensive Leader of the Australian Institute of Marine Science's (AIMS) , Dr Mike Emslie, said it's clear the World Heritage site has been resilient to pressures from climate change and coral has even shown signs of growing back in some areas over the last decade. But as disturbances become more frequent the reef is being killed off faster than it can recover.
“I don’t think we can just throw our hands up in the air and give up. The Great Barrier Reef to this point has shown itself to be remarkably resilient,” Emslie told Yahoo News following weeks of monitoring the tropical waters on board the ship Cape Ferguson. “Obviously, there are limits.
And you have to wonder how close we are to those limits.” AIMS specifically examines the animal that forms the rigid calcium carbonate skeletons that are the backbone of reefs. It found coral cover on 12 of 19 reefs between Lizard Island and Cardwell had declined following unprecedented warming and extreme weather events between December, 2023 and March, 2024.
The losses ranged from 17 per cent to 72 per cent. Losses around the Cooktown-Lizard Island sector were at their highest in 39 years of monitoring, while further south in Cairns around a third of coral was reported lost. The .
