93% of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Suffering Coral Bleaching.
— “We didn't expect to see this level of destruction to the Great Barrier Reef for another 30 years. In the north, I saw hundreds of reefs in which literally two-thirds of the reefs were dying and are now dead.”
- Terry Hughes, Ph.D., Prof. and Dir. of Australia's Government-Funded Center for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville City, QLD, Australia
— “I've been photographing this area of the reef for several years now
and what we’re seeing is unprecedented. ... nearly 100% of the corals are bleaching, and who knows how many will recover?”
- Brett Monroe Garner, Photographer, Greenpeace Int'l.
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is suffering its worst coral bleaching ever recorded with 93% damaged to dying. Image by AFP.The Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland in northeastern Australia, (red underline) is the largest living organism on Earth, even visible from outer space. The 1400-mile-long (2,300 km) ecosystem is made up of some 3,000 individual reefs produced from over 600 types of hard and soft coral. Coral reefs are not plants. Corals are the product of billions of tiny organisms known as coral polyps. Even though coral reefs make up only 1/10th of 1% of the Earth's surface, the reefs are where 25% of all marine life live for protection.
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