Great Barrier Reef now beyond saving, claim experts

Scientists in Australia have conceded that the Great Barrier Reef - one of the world's natural wonders - cannot be saved from the effects of climate change.

An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef in 2014. Picture: AFP/Getty Images

The reef - a World Heritage Site - has been severely damaged by the world’s ocean’s warming up with up to 95 per cent of the reef surveyed in 2016 found to be bleached.

Coral reefs around the world have been affected in much the same way.

Bleaching is not always fatal. However, surveys on a stretch of the 700km reef has found that 67 per cent of shallow water coral was found dead, the largest die-off of coral ever recorded.

Experts on a committee set up by the Australian government - now recommend that the action should be taken to sustain the ‘ecological function’ of the reef as its health declines further.

In a recent statement, the panel said they were “united in their concern about the seriousness of the impacts facing the Reef and concluded that coral bleaching since early 2016 has changed the Reef fundamentally”.

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“There is great concern about the future of the Reef, and the communities and businesses that depend on it, but hope still remains for maintaining ecological function over the coming decades,” it added.

“Members agreed that, in our lifetime and on our watch, substantial areas of the Great Barrier Reef and the surrounding ecosystems are experiencing major long-term damage which may be irreversible unless action is taken now.

“The planet has changed in a way that science informs us is unprecedented in human history. While that in itself may be cause for action, the extraordinary rapidity of the change we now observe makes action even more urgent.

“It recommended that reducing greenhouse gas emissions “must be central to the response”.

While the official statement did not rule out hopes of reviving the reef, the Guardian reported that two of the experts on the panel speaking anonymously recommended that achieving the lesser goal of mainting its ‘ecological function’ was more realistic.

The panel’s views could lead to the reef being declared a World Heritage Site ‘in danger’, a move that the Australian government has so far resisted.