Reefs in the News

Reef Check Photography Competition

2008-04-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

What do coral reefs mean to you? Photography Competition
Abridged from: Reef Check Website
March 2008
Full text: http://www.reefcheckaustralia.org

In celebration of the Second International Year of the Reef, Reef Check Australia and Project AWARE are running an International “What do coral reefs mean to you?” photography competition. This annual competition is designed to showcase the multitude of different ways that ‘we’ value our reefs. These “values” include social activities and recreational pastimes such as diving, snorkelling, sailing and fishing, traditional cultural activities for many indigenous Australians and commercial ventures such as tourism and gathering seafood. Submissions open May 1st to June 30th, 2008.

Further information: Reef Check Australia E: media@reefcheckaustralia.org T: (07) 4724 3950 W: http://www.reefcheckaustralia.org

Scott Reef, AUS in danger!

2008-03-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hi All

After years of individual assessments for test drilling and seismic testing, Woodside has now put in an application for full-scale offshore oil and gas production at Scott Reef. While the application is all about LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) it is important to remember that both oil and gas have been found in the Browse Basin where Scott Reef is situated. The production of LNG usually requires separating it from oil, contaminated wastewater or other substances. Liquid natural gas may be a slightly cleaner fuel than oil or coal but it is still a fossil fuel and contributes to global warming and climate change. Gas production comes with a range of environmental impacts, both direct and indirect, all of which have the potential to impact on coral reefs in general and Scott Reef specifically.

If this application is approved, Australia will have the dubious distinction of being the first country ever to allow the construction of oil and gas production infrastructure on a major coral reef. It will set a precedent that could very well lead to the development of offshore oil and gas fields in the Coral Sea on the boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Scott Reef is as ecologically important and beautiful as any major coral reef anywhere in the world and due the same respect and protection we give reefs such as Ningaloo and the Great Barrier Reef.

The environmental credentials of Governments and Environment Ministers are continually being put to the test. The Rudd Government and Environment Minister Peter Garrett have scored poorly in almost every environmental test they have faced to date, if they fail in this test, the loser will be Scott Reef and Australia's international reputation.

Please consider making a submission against this application, the full details of which can be downloaded at the following link. The closing date for submissions is April 3rd

http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/epbc/epbc_ap.pl?name=referral_detail&proposal_id=4111

If you don't have the time to put in a submission then please find a moment to write, email or fax Minister Peter Garrett and let him know what you think of allowing Scott Reef to be degraded by oil and gas development. Ask him to reject this application and prohibit any new oil and gas exploration and extraction within 100km of any coral reef in Australian waters.

The Hon Peter Garrett AM MP

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts.

PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Tel: (02) 6277 7640
Fax: (02) 6273 6101

Email: Peter.Garrett.MP@aph.gov.au

If you would updates on this issue or to be sent a draft copy of our submission against this application then please reply to this email.

Thanks
James

James Mc Lellan
Coordinator
North Queensland Conservation Council
Phone (07) 47716226
Fax (07) 47211713
Mobile 0403685308
www.nqcc.org.au

Crocheting a Coral Reef

2008-03-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

One of the acknowledged wonders of the natural world, the Great Barrier Reef stretches along the coast of Queensland like a psychadelic serpent, a riotous profusion of color and form unparalleled on our planet. But global warming and pollutants so threaten this fragile monster that scientists now believe the reef will be devastated in coming years. As a homage to the Great One, IFF co-directors Margaret and Christine Wertheim - who grew up in Queensland - have instigated a project to crochet a woolen reef. Using the techniques of hyperbolic crochet discovered by mathematician Dr. Daina Taimina, the Institute has been evolving a wide taxonomy of reef-life forms - loopy "kelps", fringed "anemones", and curlicued "corals." While the process that brings these models into being is algorithmic, endless permutations of the underlying formulae result in a constantly surprising panoply of shapes. The quality of yarn, style of stitch and tightness of the crochet all affect the finished model so that each is as individual as a living organism. As a whole, the Crochet Reef is made up of various different “sub-reefs,” each with its own colors and styling: there is the Red Reef, the Blue Reef, the Bleached Reef, the Branched Anemone Garden, and our largest work, The Ladies’ Silurian Atoll, a ring-shaped installation with close to 1000 individual crochet forms made by dozens of contributors from around the world. In addition to these woolen sub-reefs is the massive Toxic Reef, crocheted from yarn and plastic trash.

Check it out at The Institute for Figuring's website.

Incredible Shrinking Reef

2008-01-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Incredible shrinking reef

The Townsville Bulletin

DANIEL BATEMAN

07Jan08

THE Great Barrier Reef is shrinking and there could be nothing left but a slimy underwater forest of algae within 90 years, a scientist has warned.

The Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University's Dr Eric Wolanski has created a frightening picture of what the reef is likely to look like by the year 2100.

His study was based on past and future averaged coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef between Lizard Island and Bowen.

Using physics and historic coral reef cover data, Dr Wolanski suggests the reef has been steadily shrinking since European settlement of Australia.

The main cause of this has been mud and chemicals washed onto the reef from farms, which has choked the coral, cutting it off from sunlight.

It has been shrinking at a rate of about 20 per cent every 100 years.

Dr Wolanski said the reef would continue to die off unless better land management controls were brought in.

"If we run our model forward, we see a steady decrease in the health of the reef," Dr Wolanski said.

"If you look at the reef cover, it's turning into slime, into algae.

"The picture we're seeing is we had about 65 per cent coral cover 100 years ago.

"We are now in the mid-40s. By 2050 we are in the mid-30s and in 2100 we are left with less than 10 per cent.

"We can recover about one-third of this loss if we cut the outflow of mud and nutrients by half from farms and cattle."

Last year the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report which warned that the Barrier Reef would be `functionally extinct' within decades.

The report stated coral bleaching of the Barrier Reef was likely to become an annual event by 2030 because of warmer, more acidic seas.

Dr Wolanski said if the IPCC's prediction was accurate, it would not matter what action was taken.

"We won't have anything left," he said.

"Right now the problem is a land-use problem which we can correct and recover some of the losses if we take more care of the land.

"It is a much bigger issue than other global issues, otherwise we will be left with only an algal mat."

The coral reef around Dunk Island was one of the sites Dr Wolanski considered.

During February last year it was blanketed by mud for close to two weeks, he said.

Dr Wolanski described the existing reefs as representative of what the entire Barrier Reef would look like within the next 90 years.

"If you dive under the sea there you can see the shape of the old reef, but now it's all dead," he said.

"It's quite clear that the cause of this has been carried from the land."

Link to the article

More news...

2008-01-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

Indigenous reef agreement to allow Keppel Islands hunting
Abridged from ABC News Online

Full text: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/11/2115488.htm

A central Queensland Indigenous group says hunting is just a small part of a new agreement with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The agreement allows traditional hunting and fishing around the Keppel Islands. But Bob Muir from the Woppaburra people says Indigenous people will also be involved with research and monitoring of marine life. Mr Muir says hunting rights will be restricted.

Coral reef sustainability on forum agenda
Full text: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/10/2113873.htm
The University of Queensland is hosting an international forum this week to develop policies to sustain the world's coral reefs. The forum, which is sponsored by the Coral Reef Targeted Research Program, is expected to attract leading scientists and more than 50 postgraduate and postdoctoral students from 20 countries.

Corals could resist climate change: study
Abridged from ABC News Online,
Full text: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/08/2113347.htm
Research scientists are looking at whether coral reefs may be able to develop mechanisms to better cope with the effects of climate change. The joint study has been carried out by scientists from Queen's University in Canada and the Australian Institute of Marine Science. Principal research scientist with the institute, Julian Caley, says they have developed a new theoretical model that suggests there is nothing to prevent corals evolving greater resistance to warm water bleaching.

New theory of corals’ ability to adapt to climate change
Abridged from: AIMS Media Release
Full text: http://www.aims.gov.au/news/pages/media-release-20071204.html
A new paper, investigates the potential for corals to evolve greater resistance to bleaching. The joint study, carried out by scientists from Queen’s University in Canada and the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) presents a new way of examining how coral reefs may respond to climate change.

Gastro cameras make waves for reef research
Abridged from: UQ media Release
Full text: http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=13588
Italian and Queensland scientists are putting military and industrial technology underwater to improve reef research and revolutionise marine data collection. They are building plug-and-play electronic sensor pods — energy efficient scientific monitors about the size of two matchboxes, that can receive directions and transmit environmental data from the seabed to the air via radio signals.

Reef holds drug key to fight against diseases
Abridged from Courier-Mail,
Full text: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22850997-3102,00..html
An underwater treasure trove of new species found off the Queensland coast could hold the key to miracle cures for hundreds of diseases. Researchers on the Great Barrier Reef have found at least 500 new types of marine sponges, which produce chemicals that have already led to breakthroughs in fighting diseases such as AIDS. But the clock is ticking to derive medicines from the sponges, as climate change and nutrient runoff from farmland threaten the future of the Reef.

News submitted by Chris Tola, Chair, Surfrider Australia

CO2 and Reefs - A bad combination

2008-01-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

Reefs doomed if CO2 rises

Monday, 17 December 2007

University of Queensland

This montage shows how the world’s coral reefs
will look in future years if CO2 emissions
continue to rise.

Eminent coral scientists have given world leaders in Bali more reason to act urgently against climate change, by producing a new report that warns coral reefs will disappear within decades if atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise.

Their paper, published 14 December 2007 in the prestigious Science magazine, is the most compelling scientific case yet that unchecked global warming will be a disaster for coral reefs and the 100 million people and one million species depending on them.

CO2 concentration in the earth's atmosphere is currently 380 parts per million (ppm) but the authors say if future emissions exceed 450ppm we risk losing reefs.

“This is a very ambitious target and should represent yet another reality check for world leaders meeting in Bali,” lead author UQ Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said.

Reducing CO2 emissions must also be accompanied by reducing reef risks such as overfishing, pollution and unsustainable coastal developments, a cross-section of the report's authors (all of whom are members of the Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building for Management Program, CRTR) said at UQ.

Tools to reduce stress on coral reefs already exist, and include: increased protection of river catchment and coastal areas; co-management arrangements between governments and local communities; improved catchment, water quality and environmental flow measures; fishing regulation enforcement; restoration of reefs and coastal vegetation; and sustainable tourism.

The study has found serious consequences follow on from even small increases in CO2.

“The warmer and more acidic oceans caused by the rise of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels threaten to destroy coral dominated reef ecosystems, exposing people to flooding, coastal erosion and the loss of food and income from reef-based fisheries and tourism,” Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.

“This is happening just when many nations are hoping that growing industries like tourism and fisheries will allow them to develop beyond theiroften impoverished state.

“Increased CO2 not only warms the climate but also dissolves in sea water making it more acidic.

“This, in turn, decreases the ability of corals to produce calcium carbonate, which is what the all-important framework of coral reefs is made of.”

The study used information built up over the past decade to project how reefs will look if emissions are or are not controlled.

"It is a sobering thought that we have used the lower range of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios in our analysis yet still envisage serious if not devastating ramifications forcoral-dominated reefs.

“Emission pathways that include higher CO2 (600 to 1000ppm) and global temperatures of 3°to 6°C defy consideration as credible alternatives,” the report said.

Next generation reef scientists and managers have been meeting at UQ this week for an international forum to develop policies to sustain the world's coral reefs.

More than 50 postgraduate and postdoctoral students from 20 countries have attended.

“These future leaders in coral reef science have honed their leadership skills and discovered how to grow their influence among those networks which manage and set policy for coral reefs worldwide,” UQ Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor and paper co-author Professor Paul Greenfield said.

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Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

News submitted by Chris Tola, Chair, Surfrider Australia

Save the Dates!

2008-01-08T14:35:00.000-08:00

10-14 December 2007. First meeting of the Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building (CRTR) Program at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. For more information, please see http://www.gefcoral.org/

2-7 March 2008. The 2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Orlando, Florida, USA. For more information, please see http://www.aslo.org/orlando2008/

7-11 April 2008. The 4th Global Conference in Oceans, Coasts, and Islands in Hanoi, Vietnam. For more information, please see http://www.globaloceans.org/globalconferences/2008/index.html

7-11 July 2008. The 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. For more information please see: http://www.nova.edu/ncri/11icrs

1-5 December 2008. The 4th International Symposium on Deep Sea Corals in Wellington, New Zealand. For more information, please see http://coral2008.niwa.co.nz/index.php

News courtesy of Chris Tola, Chair, Surfrider Australia