Project building up Reef is back

SCIENTISTS will return to the Great Barrier Reef this spawning season to gather millions of eggs and sperm for reef restoration projects.

It comes as a new report suggests that if climate change continues globally at its current rate, the possibility of recovery on the Reef between mass bleaching events will steadily diminish.

The Climate Council yesterday released a report outlining the physical impact climate change has had on several regions across Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef and the mangrove ecosystems of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

The report states that on the Reef, recruitment of new coral has been reduced by about 90 per cent, following the 2016 and 2017 mass bleaching events.

“The return period of global bleaching events has decreased from 27 years in the 1980s to only about six years today,” it says.

“If climate change continues unabated, this trend will continue for the foreseeable future, with the possibility of recovery between catastrophes steadily diminishing.

“Given that these reefs are also suffering from the impacts of ocean acidification, rising sea levels and increased severity of tropical cyclones, the outlook for these icons of marine biodiversity is very grim.”

Scientists from James Cook University, Southern Cross University and the University of Technology Sydney will gather in Cairns tonight for an information session about a major Reef restoration project that began in the Far North last year.

The project, which had its trial off Cairns last year, gathered millions of coral eggs and sperm, to be reared and ultimately resettled on Moore and Vlassoff reefs.

JCU researcher Katie Chartrand said the team would be returning to the Reef in late November, during the annual Great Barrier Reef spawning season, to gather even more material.

“We’re aiming for larger settlement and a larger spatial footprint of coral larvae back on the Reef,” she said.

She said while it was important for climate change to be addressed, reef restoration efforts should not be dismissed.

“The goal now is we can choose a future trajectory where the coral that is impacted can recover and return to restore these reefs, or we’re at a point where they will all be lost,” she said. “Our approach is to basically support that process and make sure there's coral left, particularly on these high-value reefs.”