Barrier reef tourism group hits out at scientist over visitor slump
A Queensland tourism representative has called one of the Great Barrier Reef’s leading researchers ‘‘a dick’’, blaming him for a downturn in tourism growth at the state’s greatest natural asset.
Col McKenzie, head of the Association of Marine Park Tourism Operators, which represents more than 100 businesses in the Great Barrier Reef area, has written to the federal government asking it to stop funding the work of Professor Terry Hughes, claiming his comments are ‘‘misleading’’ and damaging the tourism industry.
But the Australian Conservation Foundation says tourism representatives and operators like McKenzie should stop blaming scientists for reporting what is happening to the reef, and start targeting major polluters to bring about change.
Hughes, who serves as director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the reef, has been warning of the damage that rising water temperatures have been inflicting on the reef for years.
While not disagreeing that there was work to be done on the reef’s health, McKenzie accused Hughes of exaggerating the damage, which he said had been detrimental to the region’s multibillion-dollar tourism industry.
‘‘I think Terry Hughes is a dick. I believe he has done tens of millions of dollars of damage to our reef in our key markets, being America and Europe. You went to those areas in 2017, and they were convinced the reef was dead. And people won’t do long-haul trips when they think the reef is dead.’’
McKenzie said tourism growth in the region had returned to preglobal financial crisis levels in 2016, before ‘‘that growth died’’ in 2017, which he blamed on Hughes’s ‘‘negative comments’’.
In April 2016 Hughes made international headlines after his report on extensive surveys showed that of the surveyed reef, only 7 per cent had escaped coral bleaching. McKenzie said this created the impression that the reef was ‘‘dead’’.
‘‘I think it is a misuse of commonwealth funds to make false or misleading comments to the media.’’
McKenzie has previously written to ministers Christopher Pyne and Greg Hunt over the issue, and said he had spoken with Environment and Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg ‘‘informally’’.
A spokeswoman for the ARC said the council had provided A$28 million (NZ$30.6m) over the past seven years to James Cook University to fund the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, with the funding going to the centre as a whole, not an individual.
‘‘The ARC monitors all projects that it funds for the achievement of their goals. All projects funded through the ARC are expected to be undertaken in accordance with the Australian code for the responsible conduct of research, which applies to the quality and integrity of the research.’’
Hughes did not respond to McKenzie’s comments directly, but included his most recent peerreviewed articles in the journals Science and Nature, which dealt with the increased incidence of coral bleaching as a result of rising sea temperatures.
His Science paper, published on January 5, found that coral bleaching events were now happening too regularly to allow the reef to adequately recover.
The chief executive of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Kelly O’Shanassy, said too much was at stake for tourism operators to be blaming scientists for what was happening to the reef, and the real problem – climate change – had to be addressed.
‘‘Blaming scientists and attempting to get their funding cut is the worst possible response to this crisis,’’ she said. ‘‘We need high-quality science more than ever so we can monitor and track what’s happening to the reef.’’
Darrell Wade, the executive chair of Intrepid Travel, also disputed the idea that talking about environmental problems kept tourists away. ‘‘It’s been implied that talking about the issues will have a negative impact on business – but we’ve actually found that the opposite is true,’’ he said.