Great Barrier Reef sees fragile coral comeback

Yahoo – AFP, Andrew BEATTY, August 4, 2022 

Parts of Australia's beleaguered Great Barrier Reef now have the highest levels of coral cover seen in decades, a government report said Thursday, suggesting the aquatic wonder could survive given the chance. 

Portions of the vast UNESCO heritage site showed a marked increase in coral cover in the last year, reaching levels not seen in 36 years of monitoring, the Australian Institute of Marine Science said. 

Scientists surveying 87 sites said northern and central parts of the reef had bounced back from damage more quickly than some had expected, thanks mainly to fast-growing Acropora -- a branching coral that supports thousands of marine species. 

"These latest results demonstrate the reef can still recover in periods free of intense disturbances," said the Australian Institute of Marine Science's CEO Paul Hardisty. 

But far from declaring victory, Hardisty warned the gains could easily be reversed by cyclones, new bleaching events or crown-of-thorns outbreaks. 

He pointed to a reversal in fortunes for the southern portion of the reef, which a year ago had appeared to be on the mend, but was now in decline again. 

"This shows how vulnerable the reef is to the continued acute and severe disturbances that are occurring more often, and are longer-lasting," he said. 

Coral coverage has increased by 36 percent across sites monitored in the northern part of the reef, up from 27 percent in 2021. 

But the picture was less encouraging as the scientists moved south, with a smaller increase in cover in the reef's central belt and a marked decrease in coral cover in the south. 

The spread of coral-killing crown-of-thorns starfish has also taken a toll. 

Only fierce lobbying by the Australian government stopped the reef from being labelled "in danger" by UNESCO -- a potentially devastating blow to the country's multi-billion-dollar tourism industry. 

Many fear that the speeding rate of damage could cause the reef to be destroyed entirely. 

Marine scientist Terry Hughes said it was "good news" that coral was regrowing, but warned the species driving the recovery were very vulnerable to ocean heating. 

He added that replacing large, old, slow-growing corals that had defined the reef was likely "no longer possible. Instead we're seeing partial reassembly of fast-growing, weedy corals before the next disturbance." 

Zoe Richards a researcher at the Coral Conservation and Research Group at Curtin University also cautioned against over-optimism. 

"This recovery trend is driven by a handful of Acropora species which often grow in a boom-and-bust pattern," she said. "This means that the next thermal stress event could easily decimate these coral communities once again." 

"We are already finding evidence that each mass bleaching event leads to local extinctions of rarer species, so the short-term success of a handful of fast-growing coral species masks the full story about the largely hidden losses of biodiversity."

Related Article:

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....The Prediction: The Renewal of the Life Cycle

When you change the temperature strata of the oceans of the earth, things start to change, for the life cycle of the food in the ocean depends upon that which is the smallest. The plankton of the planet survive in certain temperatures, and that's changing. Throw away what you think you know about how it's all supposed to work, and instead think "renewal" or "how did it begin." This will serve you to understand what is happening now. This cycle is built to replenish the ocean with life and not always by sustaining the kind that was there.

Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth.

Within this process, there will be the extinction of certain plants and animals, birds and fish. My advice to you, especially to those environmentalists, is to understand the cycle of life so that you may relax with what nature has always done. It puts life on the planet to serve the planet for a time. When certain life no longer serves the planet in the ways it used to, it takes it away. The extinction of life, especially through weather change, is normal for Gaia. It is honored, appropriate and normal, even if you don't think so. Don't try to save all the disappearing animals, fish and birds! Some are supposed to go away. And, dear ones, don't assign all this activity to something you did to cause it!

The red people are stressing. The purple is here, and they are trying to figure out what they did wrong. They don't know they are in the Rainbow Room. They think they are in the RED ROOM. This is what the Rainbow Room does; it changes colors. So as the room does what it has always done, the red people are sitting there in fear trying to figure out what it is that they did that possibly could have caused the purple to appear.

The Rainbow Room is beautiful. The color purple is significant. Going from red to purple has metaphysical significance within this parable, but I'll let you figure it out. For those who are into colors, there's a reason why I gave those two. The earth is becoming more sacred than it's ever been before. Gaia is with you in this. It's cooperating in ways you never thought it could, in the way biologists said it would not. You think you're killing it? Instead, it's giving birth to an altered ecological system. ...."

Palau bans 'reef-toxic' sunscreen

Yahoo – AFP, Bernadette Carreon, January 1, 2020

Reefs all over the world are being affected by the toxins in sunscreens (AFP Photo/
DONALD MIRALLE)

Koror (Palau) (AFP) - Palau's pioneering ban on "reef-toxic" sunscreens took effect Wednesday as the tiny Pacific island nation introduced strict environmental measures that also include one of the world's largest marine sanctuaries.

"We have to live and respect the environment because the environment is the nest of life, and without it nobody in Palau can survive," President Tommy Remengesau told AFP as the new laws took effect.

Palau, which lies in the western Pacific about halfway between Australia and Japan, is renowned for its marine life and is regarded as one of the world's best diving destinations, but the government is concerned its popularity is coming at a cost.

Remengesau said there was scientific evidence that the chemicals found in most sunscreens were toxic to corals, even in minute doses.

With Palau's popular dive sites regularly packed with tourists there were concerns a build-up of these chemicals would irreparably harm the reefs.

From New Year's day, any reef-toxic sunscreen imported or sold in Palau will be confiscated and the owner will be fined US$1,000.

"When science tells us that a practice is damaging to coral reefs, to fish populations, or to the ocean itself, our people take note and our visitors do too," Remengesau said.

Map locating Palau. The tiny Pacific island nation's pioneering ban on 

"reef-toxic" sunscreens took effect on New Year's Day (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

"Toxic sunscreen chemicals have been found throughout Palau's critical habitats, and in the tissues of our most famous creatures.

"We don't mind being the first nation to ban these chemicals, and we will do our part to spread the word. With better education and awareness, more jurisdictions will have the confidence to take this necessary action.

"The science is clear, and once that message has spread, we will be the first of many."

Along with the sunscreen ban, Palau’s much-touted marine sanctuary came into effect on January 1, closing 80 percent of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to fishing and other marine activities including mining and shark finning.

"It is a very ambitious and worthy goal for Palau's future," Remengesau said. The marine sanctuary prohibits commercial fishing in about 500,000 square kilometres (190,000 square miles) of ocean.

The legislation also requires most foreign fleets working in the limited fishing area to land their catch in Palau and then pay an export tax.

Environment Minister Umiich Sengebau said the law ensures Palau has first rights to purchase fish caught in the area to satisfy the local demand before exports are allowed.

Remengesau said the ban was needed to "let the ocean heal" after years of mass commercial fishing in the Pacific that has seen stocks of some species such as bluefin tuna fall to critical levels.

It follows Palau's establishment of the world's first shark sanctuary in 2009 to prevent finning -- a practice that sees fish have their fins hacked off before they are thrown back into the sea to die.

Dutch home-grown coral colonies shipped off to Germany and Croatia

DutchNews, November 5, 2019 

Photo: Burgers’ Zoo

Over a hundred coral colonies spawned and raised at the Burgers’ Ocean aquarium at Burgers’ Zoo are starting out on a journey on Tuesday to aquariums in Düsseldorf in Germany and Pula in Croatia, the zoo said. 

The Arnhem zoo, which has been exceptionally successful at growing coral in its tanks, has been supplying tropical coral to other European aquariums for a number of years. Burgers’ Ocean boosts the biggest living coral reef in an aquarium in Europe which lives in a tank filled with 750,000 litres of water.

In January this year it shipped over 300 corals, sea anemones and coral reef fish to zoos in England. 

Tuesday’s transports will see 75 coral colonies and three bubble tip anemones travel to Düsselforf and 39 coral colonies and 15 Banggai Cardinal fish to Pula. 

Corals can be divided into two main groups: soft corals without an exoskeleton sand stone corals which are capable of building a stone coral. 

Burger’s Ocean has been so successful at raising both that the coral needs to be ‘pruned’ every once in a while. This makes sure the corals don’t poison their nearest neighbour or simply digest it by enveloping it with its intestine as a reaction to overcrowding.

Scientists fight to save unique Guiana coral reef

Yahoo – AFP, Marion Briswalter with Tiphaine Honore on board the Esperanza, October 4, 2019

In 2013, British oil giant BP, French company Total and Brazil's Petrobras joined 

forces to buy exploration blocks in the Amazon Reef area (AFP Photo/PIERRE TRIHAN)

Cayenne (AFP) - Off the coast of Guiana, a French overseas department perched on the north coast of South America, scientists scour the choppy waters for signs of life.

From the deck of a Greenpeace ship, they take photos and keep meticulous notes -- compiling a catalogue of sea creatures sustained by a coral reef only recently discovered but already threatened, activists say, by mankind's hunger for oil.

Near the mouth of the Amazon river in the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon Reef is one of the world's largest but its existence became known only in 2016.

"We are talking about a unique ecosystem not seen anywhere else in the world and that we barely know, and it is already under threat from oil," says Thiago Almeida of Greenpeace Brazil, on board the Esperanza -- a former Russian fire-fighting vessel-turned environmental ship.

At the moment, the ship is home to experts from Greenpeace and France's CNRS research institute -- participants in a special mission to document the wildlife in an uncharted region.

Their goal: to make a case for keeping the area off-limits to fossil fuel hunters.

The Esperanza is a former Russian fire-fighting vessel-turned environmental 

crusader (AFP Photo/Pierre TRIHAN)

Just last year, Greenpeace revealed that the reef stretched into French Guiana waters.

French Guiana's offshore area is off limits to prospectors under French law but campaigners say it would be threatened by any exploration or drilling off neighbouring Brazil.

"A lot of oil would come to French Guiana" in the event of a leak, said Almeida. "If we look at the oil spill modelling done by the companies themselves, you can see that the threat is real."

Not only the water and reef, but also the land is at risk, with mangrove forests stretching all along Guiana's coast serving as crucial fish nurseries.

British oil giant BP, French company Total and Brazil's Petrobras joined forces in 2013 to buy exploration blocks in the region in Brazilian waters.

But they needed permission to search and last December, Brazil's Ibama environmental regulator denied Total a licence to drill citing "deep uncertainties" in emergency plans, "aggravated by the possibility of an oil spill that may affect the coral reef present in the region and by extension marine biodiversity."

BP is still trying for a drilling licence in the area, a move campaigners say could endanger the reef.

French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) marine biologists are exploring 

the Amazon reef of the coast of French Guiana, a region environmentalists warn is 

threatened by oil exploration (AFP Photo/PIERRE TRIHAN)

Not just passing through

Earlier this month, a team of six experts braved the muddy water and strong currents to scrutinise the reef's corals, sponges and calcified algae, taking photos and samples.

So far, the mission has identified several species of dolphin, killer whales, sailfish and several marine birds.

But Olivier Van Canneyt, a scientist with the CNRS-aligned Pelagis observatory, is quick to stress the reef represents "more than a migratory route".

"We also observed humpback whales with their young; their presence confirms that it is also a vital place of breeding and (nurturing). French Guiana waters are a crucial place for the survival of many cetacean species," he explained.

For Edina Ifticene of Greenpeace's Protect the Oceans campaign, the discovery of these creatures showed "it doesn't make sense to drill for oil in such a critical environment; an oil spill could have irreversible consequences for the entire area."

Not only that but exploting oil deposits threatens to undermine the fight against climate change caused by planet-warming gases emitted as humanity burns fossil fuels for energy.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that ocean warming 

and changes in sea chemistry -- caused by the absorption of vast quantites of carbon 

dioxide -- is already harming ocean life and the people who depend on it (AFP Photo/

PIERRE TRIHAN)

Fish, food at risk

Brazil's ANP petroleum agency has estimated the area may hold as much as 14 billion barrels of oil -- a quantity scientists say could release 5.2 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

According to the International Energy Agency, global energy-related CO2 emissions rose to a historic high of 33.1 Gt last year.

Scientists say we need to leave at least 80 percent of the world's known remaining fossil fuel reserves in the ground to prevent runaway climate change.

Last week, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change cautioned that ocean warming and changes in sea chemistry, caused by CO2 absorption, is harming ocean life and the people who depend on it.

"Shifts in the distribution of fish populations have reduced the global catch potential," it said.

"Communities that depend highly on seafood may face risks to nutritional health and food security."

Ruben, a fisherman from the small coastal community of Kali'na said he feared for the future.

"I think it's bad for us. It's what I think. The petrol is dangerous," he said on a stopover by the Esperanza.

Scientists reproduce coral in lab, offering hope for reefs

Yahoo – AFP, August 27, 2019

Pillar corals in a water tank at the Florida Aquarium Conservation Center labs,
where scientists were able to reproduce the endangered coral species (AFP
Photo/Gianrigo MARLETTA)

Miami (AFP) - A team of scientists in the US have managed to reproduce coral in a lab setting for the first time ever, an encouraging step in the race to save "America's Great Barrier Reef" off the coast of Florida.

The researchers from Florida Aquarium's Center for Conservation were able to reproduce endangered Atlantic Pillar coral through induced spawning, a development that could ultimately prevent the extinction of the Florida Reef tract.

"This amazing breakthrough was the first time that we spawned Atlantic corals in a laboratory setting that we've had for over a year in our greenhouses," Amber Whittle, the aquarium's director for conservation, told AFP Monday.

Dr. Amber Whittle, he Florida Aquarium's director for conservation, 

inspects corals in a tank (AFP Photo/Gianrigo MARLETTA)

"It's been done before at the Horniman Museum in London with Pacific corals, never with Atlantic corals, and the Pillar coral that we spawned is a highly endangered species."

The Florida Aquarium and the Horniman Museum began working together in 2015 on induced reproduction techniques.

Reproduction was achieved by mimicking the conditions of the corals' natural environment, including sunrises, sunsets, moon phases, water temperature and quality.

Florida's corals are deteriorating rapidly due to climate change and a destructive tissue disease that appeared in the waters of the southeastern state in 2014.

Scientists hope to reproduce healthy corals and repopulate the reefs through this technique.

Stricken ship refloated after Solomons oil spill

Yahoo – AFP, 11 May 2019

The ship was carrying more than 700 tonnes of heavy fuel and leaked a huge
amount of oil into the sea

The ship at the centre of an environmental disaster near World-Heritage listed waters in the Solomon Islands was refloated Saturday after being stranded on a coral reef for more than three months.

The MV Solomon Trader ran aground on February 5 while loading bauxite at Rennell Island, about 240 kilometres (149 miles) south of the capital Honiara.

The 225-metre (740-foot) ship was carrying more than 700 tonnes of heavy fuel and leaked a huge amount of oil into the sea, sparking an international effort to contain the spill.

"They have been trying to refloat the vessel since Thursday but because of low tide they have not been able to, until today", the chairman of the Solomons National Disaster Council, Melchior Mataki, told AFP.

An oil slick more than six kilometres long has spread along the shoreline, destroying the livelihoods of islanders who rely on waters in the ecologically delicate region.

Rennell Island is the largest raised coral atoll in the world and includes a UNESCO World Heritage site which extends kilometres out to sea.

Authorities have said the site was not affected by the spill, although Mataki said a detailed environmental assessment will be undertaken now that the vessel is out of the way.

"There is a preliminary report but the full report will be made known once assessments and investigation findings are compiled properly", he said, adding the government would likely seek compensation for environmental damage.

The Australian government had sent salvage experts to assist the response and vowed to help the Solomons make sure those responsible for the spill are held to account.

The Hong Kong-registered ship was chartered by Indonesian-based Bintan Mining and was loaded with almost 11,000 tonnes of bauxite at the time of the incident.

Forget North Sea fishing – the Dutch export coral to British zoos

DutchNews, January 22, 2019

Photo: Burgers’ Zoo Arnhem

Over 300 corals, sea anemones and coral reef fish spawned and raised at the Burgers’ Ocean aquarium at Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem are being shipped to England on Wednesday, the zoo announced on Tuesday. 

Burgers’ Zoo, which has been exceptionally successful at growing coral in its tanks, has been supplying tropical coral to other European aquariums for a number of years. 

The London Aquarium is building a special tank to grow a living coral reef. The base of the reef is formed by some 170 stone corals capable of building a sturdy skeleton. Chester Zoo will receive 10 corals and 10 sea anemones from Burgers’ Zoo. 

Burgers’ Ocean boosts the biggest living coral reef in an aquarium in Europe which lives in a tank filled with 750,000 litres of water. Most of the corals shipped to England come from this reef and some were grown separately. 

‘We are happy that our coral reef is growing at such a rate that we have to cut it back from time to time,’ biologist Max Janse said. 

‘Overcrowding is not good for corals, they start to ‘fight’ and influence each other negatively. And it puts us in a position to give coral colonies to our European colleagues and safeguard corals for the future.’

Surviving bleached Barrier Reef coral 'more resilient to heat'

Yahoo – AFP, December 10, 2018

Swathes of coral died or were damaged by back-to-back bleaching in 2016 and
2017 in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, shown here in a handout photo from the ARC
Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (AFP Photo/Tory CHASE, Greg TORDA)

Sydney (AFP) - Corals on Australia's Great Barrier Reef that survived bleaching from rising sea temperatures were more resistant to another bout of hot conditions the following year, scientists said Tuesday, a "silver lining" for the embattled ecosystem.

The 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long UNESCO World Heritage-listed reef off Australia's northeastern coast was hit by back-to-back bleaching in 2016 and 2017.

Bleaching occurs when abnormal environmental conditions, such as warmer sea temperatures, cause corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae, draining them of their colour.

Corals can recover if the water temperature drops and the algae are able to recolonise them.

Swathes of coral died or were damaged in the unprecedented successive events, particularly the more heat-susceptible branching corals that are shaped like tables.

But Professor Terry Hughes of James Cook University, who has been leading the surveys of bleached corals, found in the latest study, published in Nature Climate Change, that the response of the reef was different between the two years.

"We were astonished to find less bleaching in 2017, because the temperatures were even more extreme than the year before," Hughes said.

The northern part of the reef, which was worst-affected in 2016, bleached "much less" in 2017 even though some of the reefs underwent similar levels of heat stress in both summers.

In the central regions, the levels of bleaching for both years were observed to be the same, even though the heat exposure was higher in 2017, the researchers said.

Meanwhile, in the southern region -- the least-affected -- corals that suffered minor bleaching in the first year showed no bleaching in the second.

"That surprised us, because if the southern corals had behaved the same way in year two as in year one, we should have seen 20 or 30 percent of them bleach, and they didn't," Hughes told AFP.

"So it looks like the history of their experience in year one has toughened them up so that they've acclimatised to moderate levels in year two of heat exposure... It's something of a silver lining."

Hughes said it was too early to say whether the reef -- the world's largest living structure -- could be hit by another bleaching event in early 2019, after a spring heatwave in adjacent Queensland state.

Global coral reefs risk catastrophic die-offs if Earth's average surface temperature increases two degrees Celsius (36 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, earlier research has shown.

Coral reefs make up less than one percent of Earth's marine environment, but are home to an estimated 25 percent of ocean life, acting as nurseries for many species of fish.

Related Article:

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....The Prediction: The Renewal of the Life Cycle

When you change the temperature strata of the oceans of the earth, things start to change, for the life cycle of the food in the ocean depends upon that which is the smallest. The plankton of the planet survive in certain temperatures, and that's changing. Throw away what you think you know about how it's all supposed to work, and instead think "renewal" or "how did it begin." This will serve you to understand what is happening now. This cycle is built to replenish the ocean with life and not always by sustaining the kind that was there.

Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth.

Within this process, there will be the extinction of certain plants and animals, birds and fish. My advice to you, especially to those environmentalists, is to understand the cycle of life so that you may relax with what nature has always done. It puts life on the planet to serve the planet for a time. When certain life no longer serves the planet in the ways it used to, it takes it away. The extinction of life, especially through weather change, is normal for Gaia. It is honored, appropriate and normal, even if you don't think so. Don't try to save all the disappearing animals, fish and birds! Some are supposed to go away. And, dear ones, don't assign all this activity to something you did to cause it!

The red people are stressing. The purple is here, and they are trying to figure out what they did wrong. They don't know they are in the Rainbow Room. They think they are in the RED ROOM. This is what the Rainbow Room does; it changes colors. So as the room does what it has always done, the red people are sitting there in fear trying to figure out what it is that they did that possibly could have caused the purple to appear.

The Rainbow Room is beautiful. The color purple is significant. Going from red to purple has metaphysical significance within this parable, but I'll let you figure it out. For those who are into colors, there's a reason why I gave those two. The earth is becoming more sacred than it's ever been before. Gaia is with you in this. It's cooperating in ways you never thought it could, in the way biologists said it would not. You think you're killing it? Instead, it's giving birth to an altered ecological system. ...."

Over one third of Indonesia's coral reefs in bad state: study

Yahoo – AFP, 28 November 2018

Indonesia has some of the world's finest corals but many are also badly damaged

More than a third of Indonesia's coral reefs are in bad condition, scientists said Tuesday, raising concerns about the future of the archipelago's vast marine ecosystem.

The precarious state of the country's coral reefs was revealed after a survey of 1067 sites across the sprawling country of more than 17,000 islands.

Scientists from Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) found that just 6.5 percent Indonesia's coral reefs were in excellent condition, while 36 percent are in bad condition. Some 34 percent in sufficient condition with the rest classifed as being in good condition.

"Anthropogenic factors are having more influence on the condition of corals in Indonesia today," Dr Dirhamsyah, head of the institute's oceanographic research centre, said in a statement.

"The use of coast has increased which can threaten the ecosystem."

Dirhamsyah, who like many Indonesians has only one name, said greater public awareness was needed "for the survival of marine life" in Indonesia.

Indonesia has one of the most extensive coral reef systems in the world and more people live close to reefs than anywhere else on the planet, according to the Coral Reef Alliance.

But the giant living organisms face a number of threats, including man-made climate change, destructive fishing techniques and nutrient and sediment loading.

Indonesia is also the world's second biggest contributor to marine debris after China, producing an estimated 1.29 million metric tons annually.

Conservation group WWF warned last month up to half of the globe's shallow-water reefs, which support a quarter of all marine life, have already been wiped out.

If humanity fails to keep global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, coral mortality is likely to hit 70-90 percent by the middle of the century, the United Nations warned in a recent report.

Indonesia is part of the Coral Triangle, the most biodiverse marine area on earth which passes through six countries, including the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Great Barrier Reef on sixth life in 30,000 years: study

Yahoo – AFP, May 28, 2018

An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands,
along the central coast of Queensland. Researchers say the reef has returned
from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years (AFP Photo/SARAH
LAI, SARAH LAI)

Paris (AFP) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef, under severe stress in a warmer, more acidic ocean, has returned from near-extinction five times in the past 30,000 years, researchers said Monday.

And while this suggests the reef may be more resilient than once thought, it has likely never faced an onslaught quite as severe as today, they added.

"I have grave concerns about the ability of the reef in its current form to survive the pace of change caused by the many current stresses and those projected into the near future," said Jody Webster of the University of Sydney, who co-authored a paper in the journal Nature Geoscience.

In the past, the reef shifted along the sea floor to deal with changes in its environment -- either seaward or landward depending on whether the level of the ocean was rising or falling, the research team found.

Based on fossil data from cores drilled into the ocean floor at 16 sites, they determined the Great Barrier Reef, or GBR for short, was able to migrate between 20 centimetres (7.9 inches) and 1.5 metres per year.

This rate may not be enough to withstand the current barrage of environmental challenges.

The reef "probably has not faced changes in SST (sea surface temperature) and acidification at such a rate," Webster told AFP. Rates of change "are likely much faster now -- and in future projections."

The World Heritage-listed site, which attracts millions of tourists, is reeling from successive bouts of coral bleaching due to warming sea temperatures linked to climate change.

Webster and an international team wanted to view the reef's current plight within a longer-term context.

Over 10 years, they studied how it had responded to changes caused by continental ice sheets expanding and waning over 30 millennia.

Fish nurseries

Their research covers a period from before the "Last Glacial Maximum" or LGM -- the peak freeze about 21,000 years ago during the last Ice Age.

The average sea level at the time was some 120 metres (394 feet) lower than today.

As sea levels dropped leading up to the LGM, there were two massive "death events" -- about 30,000 and 22,000 years ago, the team found.

These were caused by the reef being exposed to air. What remained of it inched seaward to rebound later.

As ice sheets melted after the LGM, two die-offs -- 17,000 and 13,000 years ago -- were due to sea level rise, the team found. In these cases, the reef moved itself landward.

The fifth death event took place about 10,000 years ago, apparently due to a massive sediment dump amidst a higher sea level.

Webster said the GBR "will probably die again in the next few thousand years anyway if it follows its past geological pattern" as Earth is believed to be due for another ice age.

"But whether human-induced climate change will hasten that death remains to be seen."

In April, a study said nearly a third of the reef's coral was killed in a "catastrophic die-off" during a violent heatwave in 2016.

Changes in sea temperature and acidity can cause corals to "bleach" -- ejecting the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food.

Bleached corals are more susceptible to disease, and without enough time to recover, may disappear for good.

Coral reefs are home to about a quarter of ocean life, and act as nurseries for many species of fish.

Related Article:

“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....The Prediction: The Renewal of the Life Cycle

When you change the temperature strata of the oceans of the earth, things start to change, for the life cycle of the food in the ocean depends upon that which is the smallest. The plankton of the planet survive in certain temperatures, and that's changing. Throw away what you think you know about how it's all supposed to work, and instead think "renewal" or "how did it begin." This will serve you to understand what is happening now. This cycle is built to replenish the ocean with life and not always by sustaining the kind that was there.

Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth.

Within this process, there will be the extinction of certain plants and animals, birds and fish. My advice to you, especially to those environmentalists, is to understand the cycle of life so that you may relax with what nature has always done. It puts life on the planet to serve the planet for a time. When certain life no longer serves the planet in the ways it used to, it takes it away. The extinction of life, especially through weather change, is normal for Gaia. It is honored, appropriate and normal, even if you don't think so. Don't try to save all the disappearing animals, fish and birds! Some are supposed to go away. And, dear ones, don't assign all this activity to something you did to cause it!

The red people are stressing. The purple is here, and they are trying to figure out what they did wrong. They don't know they are in the Rainbow Room. They think they are in the RED ROOM. This is what the Rainbow Room does; it changes colors. So as the room does what it has always done, the red people are sitting there in fear trying to figure out what it is that they did that possibly could have caused the purple to appear.

The Rainbow Room is beautiful. The color purple is significant. Going from red to purple has metaphysical significance within this parable, but I'll let you figure it out. For those who are into colors, there's a reason why I gave those two. The earth is becoming more sacred than it's ever been before. Gaia is with you in this. It's cooperating in ways you never thought it could, in the way biologists said it would not. You think you're killing it? Instead, it's giving birth to an altered ecological system. ...."