Reef recovery job in progress

REPORTS that key tourism coral reef sites are bouncing back from bleaching is great news for the Far North.

The Cairns based Reef and Rainforest Research Centre yesterday announced that coral was blossoming at dive sites such as Moore, Saxon and Norman Reefs.

Each of these areas experienced bleaching during the back-to-back mass bleaching events of 2016 and 2017.

By no means did these events completely kill off the Great Barrier Reef — which is larger than the country of Italy. But they did, according to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, result in the death of 50 per cent of shallow water corals across the natural wonder.

So while we should be relieved there are signs of recovery in areas tourists visit the most, it isn’t time yet to bring out the party poppers.

We need to do whatever we can to help ensure corals that have survived bleaching continue to do so, by making the Reef as resilient against climate change and other threatening processes that we, as its stewards, can make it.

At the top end of this list, is cutting down on greenhouse emissions — a global threat to all natural environments. And at the bottom is carrying out even the smallest of actions, like remembering to bring a reusable bag to the supermarket, so single-use plastic bags don’t end up as sea turtle chow.

Everyone who lives in Cairns knows how important the Reef is not just to our tourism industry, but to our economy and livelihood as a whole. The worst thing we can do is absolutely nothing to protect this incredible marine environment. Our future generations deserve to have it there long after we’re gone. Daniel Bateman daniel.bateman@news.com.au