Researchers have found that sea temperatures on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef are the warmest they’ve been in 400 years, with five of the six warmest years in the 407-year ocean record occurring since 2016. They did this by drilling and…
Great Barrier Reef Coral Cover was at 38-Year High before Bleaching and Cyclones
A new report on the Great Barrier Reef shows that coral cover was actually increasing in 2023 before a serious bleaching event in 2024, and damage from back-to-back cyclones in 2023/24. The report carried out by the Australian Institute of…
Join Reef Blitz 2023 this week on the Great Barrier Reef
Reef Blitz 2023 is an annual event that brings together divers, fishers, scientists, students, conservationists and multiple citizen science programs to help Queensland communities collect a snapshot of information relevant to reef health. Starting in 2014, ReefBlitz is an iNaturalist…
Four Aussie corals allowed back into UK for first time since the ban
A UK supplier has imported four coral species for the first time since the Queensland-UK import ban was imposed in 2021. Since then, all corals from The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, have been prevented from import into Britain due to…
Study finds Table Corals are fast to grow but first to go
Scientists at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have found that some fast-growing coral species on the Great Barrier Reef slow down their growth rates when they are exposed to warmer water. The study, published in the Proceedings of…
Coral larvae successfully stained to track dispersal and settlement
Researchers have used a harmless dye to stain coral spawn and track its dispersal and settlement on the reef. Christopher Doropoulos and George Roff of CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere, Australia, developed the low-cost technique to provide a quick, simple, and…
Coral-covered reefs mean starvation for parrotfish
The good folks over at Coral Sea Foundation have uncovered an interesting paper on parrotfish that challenges the existing norms on their role on the reef. Until now, Parrotfishes (Family Scaridae) were thought to be herbivores that eat algae and…
Bluelined surgeonfish inhibits coral growth says Coral Sea Foundation
The charitable organization Coral Sea Foundation has observed Bluelined surgeonfish, Acanthurus lineatus, actively suppressing coral growth at one of its monitoring sites, Lizard Island, on the Great Barrier Reef. Also known as the Lined Surgeon, or Clown Tang, A.lineatus is…
Great Barrier Reef records highest hard coral cover in 36 years
The Australian Institute of Marine Science has reported a 36-year coral coverage high across the Great Barrier Reef for 2021/22. The greatest coverage increases were reported in the North and Central regions of the GBR, which is in direct contrast…
New ownership for Corals Down Under
July 1st, 2022 sees Australian coral exporter Corals Down Under taking on new owners. First established in 2013 by Alex and Rebecca Doll, CDU has established itself as a major coral exporter from the Great Barrier Reef, and under its…
