Natural wonder is doing just fine

Green pours scorn on envoy Entsch as GBRMPA downgrades outlook to ‘very poor’

COMMENT

ALAN WALLISH PLEASE forgive me if I feel like I have travelled a parallel universe lately.

Last Friday, I was guiding a group of divers on Milln Reef on the Great Barrier Reef and we saw sharks, turtles, rays, barracudas and spectacular coral formations.

Coming out of the water was the usual whoop whoop of happy divers. Then, on the way home, my phone started to ping like crazy and I read that the marine park authority had downgraded the Reef outlook to “very poor”.

Was I on the same Reef described in that heading? Had my international clientele been duped?

Only later that night, after I started reading the report, did I realise this was an outlook, a prognosis, a forecast if you like, of what the Reef health may be like in the future.

Bleaching, cyclones, crownof-thorns, these are all cycles of weather change I have dealt with in my 30-year career.

But what happens next is recovery and regeneration and it’s back to business.

In 2016 it was 95 per cent of the Reef had been bleached. In 2017 it was 50 per cent of the Reef was dead. Now it’s the Reef is “very poor”. The average tourist will not see this report as a forecast but as a fact.

Enough with the apocalyptic headlines. The Great Barrier Reef is not a poster child, it is not a pincushion for the forces of social change.

Climate change needs an international political response. Its existence does not give licence to destroy the industries within its path.

Our Reef is 2300km long, vibrant and supports a brilliant industry dedicated to showcasing its beauty.