SAVE THE GREAT BARRIER REEF

Australia is in the grip of a marine crisis. Our prized Great Barrier Reef is under immense threat.

 The Great Barrier Reef is a UNESCO world heritage site that can be seen from space. It includes 3,000 coral reef systems, 600 islands and stretches for 2,300 kilometres along the North Queensland coastline.

Its health is crucial to so many Australians’ lives, from its traditional owners, to tourism operators, scientists, fishers and everyday Australians.

 The Great Barrier Reef is also fundamental to the survival of the thousands of species that depend on it. It is the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem, and has been in perfect balance for over two thousand years. Everything in the ecosystem is interconnected, and therefore dependent on every other organism within that ecosystem for survival. Once, life on Earth functioned without humans, but now, after years and years of increased human interaction, we have become very much a part of this web. We depend on the many and varied riches the reef provides, and the reef’s ecosystem depends on us to not destroy it. This means that we have a deep responsibility to care for the reef and to protect it. But our actions are increasingly having a detrimental effect on the reef’s continued existence.

Coral are the essential foundation to any reef. Most can only tolerate waters between 18 to 32 degrees Celsius. And because of global warming, the waters of the Great Barrier Reef are far too hot.

Zoothanthellae are the microscopic marine algae that exist with the tissues of coral. There is a mutual symbiosis: the coral provides the algae with shelter and safety, and in return the Zoothanthellae photosynthesises and produces nutrients, which compromise 90 per cent of the coral’s nutritional requirements to grow and reproduce. When the water is too warm or too cold, the zoothanthellae cannot photosynthesise and therefore detach themselves from the coral. Because the zoothanthellae give the coral it’s vibrant colouring, the coral is left an awful stark white colour. The coral can remain a white limestone skeleton for a short time, but without food or nutrients, it quickly dies. This devastating process is known as coral bleaching.

 Furthermore, coral can only fertilise once a year and only if the water is the right temperature. Many of the eggs are swept away by currents, but the few that remain fall to the floor, are fertilised, and slowly develop into coral polyps. If the water temperatures are too high, coral cannot regrow. 

Global warming is already having a horrific effect on our incredible reef, which has been perfectly balanced for more than two thousand years. In less than a year, we have lost the coral that took nature centuries to grow. And not only that, if sea temperatures continue to rise, we have no hope of coral reforming or regrowing.

 

We have shocking statistics such as a horrific 95 per cent of the North sector of the Great Barrier Reef is damaged due to coral bleaching (including Raine Island, the sole migration point of the Green Sea Turtle), and there is little hope of regrowth in such warm temperatures.

 

We must act immediately.

 

Even at this point, the Great Barrier Reef will never fully recover. It will never be the same again. But if we as a nation can work to together to reduce global warming and strive to eliminate practices that are further damaging our fragile reef, we can go some way towards arresting the tragedy that is occurring in front of our eyes.

 

We need actions to stop or further limit overfishing, fertiliser run off, dredging and mining developments – the Adani Carmichael mine will only further contribute to global warming, carbon emissions and the destruction of the reef!

 

We must aim to better inform about the devastating effects of global warming, regulate stricter policies on energy consumption, and provide more funding for groups such as the Australian Marine Conservation Society and marine scientists. These actions may have some hope of saving our precious reef. 

 

Words cannot save it. Only actions will.

 

We need a much greater level of commitment from state and federal government, industry and individual Australians if we are to have any hope of healing the Great Barrier Reef.

We have a responsibility to act, so that the Great Barrier Reef will still exist for  our children and grandchildren.

We need to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and work together toward a sustainable future, to prevent the affects of global warming on a national and international scale.  

So, please, join me in a journey to save the Great Barrier Reef, to save the thousands and thousands of organisms dependent on it, including humans. Every second breath you take comes from the ocean. And if we owe it our lives, we should protect it's  environments and organisms - shouldn't we?