All’s Not Well With Australia’s Great Barrier Reef! But What’s Happened?

Even though it isn’t considered among the wonders of the world, it is for certain, that the Great Barrier Reef given it’s awe-inspiring beauty and a splendrous mix of oceanic life is certainly a wonder in god’s glorious earth. For decades together, the Great Barrier Reef has attracted tourists from all parts of the world- whether students, the elderly, adventure lovers, fans of sunburns, scuba divers, fans of wanderlust, biologists, hoteliers and just about anyone who likes to delve in the beauty of the world lying at the bottom of the ocean to engage with some absorbing aquatic beauty.

But over the course of the last few years, there’s been some mounting concern here in the heart of Cairns, in Australia. Lovers and visitors to the Great Barrier Reef- to their utter dismay- find the gorgeous oceanic expanse being plundered by heat. And tons and tons of it.

Scientists and researchers specialising in marine life suggest that given the constant phenomenon of burgeoning temperatures, the Great Barrier Reef is being ‘cooked’, for the lack of a better word. The humungous variety of fishes, the insurmountable depths of the ocean and the divergent animal species along with the vivid coral diversity- are all under a great threat from the rising heat and temperatures. In fact, that is not all. Large parts of the Great Barrier Reef have been destroyed for good and may never recover the lost morsels of life. Back in 2016, the concerns were real and for the first time, addressed to the wide public. Due to the warm temperatures, a massive coral bleaching event happened two years ago that led to increased phenomenon like dead-cora.

In the past few years, a number of researchers have tracked the health of the amazingly beautiful beacon of Australian-ness- the Great Barrier Reef and are disappointed to find that the health of this extremely voluminous strand of marine life is under threat. The researchers submit that coral-bleaching happens when the corals, deep under the water surface, release a tiny fragment of algae called Zooxanthellae, which happens when rising ocean temperatures put a stress on to the coral lives. Back in 2016, a phenomenon which has continuously led to starving the coral life present in the oceanic bounty of nature at the Great Barrier Reef, led to water temperatures rising well enough for huge stretches of reef to suspend this algae in the water.

As a result, many chunks of coral in the sea-bed turned stoney white and eventually died. The process has been in a state of ascendency and the specialists like marine biologists and zoologists are pointing to the worse in the course of the future. This heat-stress, the marine scientists and practitioners from the James Cook University note is never good for the coral lives underneath the sea and on account of its presence has deeply hurt the diverse marine ecology at the Great Barrier Reef, robbing many fishes and other sea lives of their potential habitat. It remains to be seen what Australia can do and how urgently to preserve its ecology.