Browsing: Great Barrier Reef

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Heat Stress Hits Coral in Great Barrier Reef

Coral on the Great Barrier Reef is in trouble, again. Indeed, the Australian agency in charge of managing the reef just said it has been hit by “significant heat stress” over the summer. The Great Barrier Reef, the most extensive coral reef in the world, is listed as a World Heritage Site. Scientists and researchers from the United Nations are visiting the reef this week to determine whether it should be listed as “in danger.” The reef just avoided such a designation last year, after intensive lobbying efforts in Australia led UNESCO to postpone such a decision until now. Meanwhile,…

Destinations
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Great Barrier Reef Explodes with Color

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef exploded in color recently during a massive spawn, a major sign of life in one of the world’s natural wonders. The spawn, when corals fertilize billions of offspring by casting sperm and eggs into the Pacific, took place along the length of the 1,429-mile-long reef, an area protected by UNESCO. Marine scientists dove under water to the reef off the coast of Cairns, Queensland, to study the annual spawn. They said the colors this year were proof that the coral can regenerate itself despite earlier, life-threatening, ecological threats. The Great Barrier Reef, a network of 2,500…

Cruising Life
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New Dive Spot: The Museum of Underwater Art

Here’s a new cruising/diving/charter destination, although it is a bit far away: The Museum of Underwater Art, about 50 miles off the coast of Australia in the Great Barrier Reef. The non-profit museum, a highly creative venture, features sculptures of 25 people housed in a Coral Greenhouse some 53 feet under the surface (see them in the video below). The sculptures, all molded from real people and all anchored to the seafloor, were crafted by Jason deCaires Taylor, a British artist. As opposed to many other contemporary artists, Taylor used heavy-set models for his sculptures, thinking they would attract more…

Cruising Life
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New Study: Great Barrier Reef Has Lost Half Its Coral

(CNN) — Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has lost 50% of its coral populations in the last three decades, with climate change a key driver of reef disturbance, a new study has found. Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, in Queensland, northeastern Australia, assessed coral communities and their colony size along the length of the Great Barrier Reef between 1995 and 2017, finding depletion of virtually all coral populations, they said Tuesday. Coral reefs are some of the most vibrant marine ecosystems on the planet — between a quarter and one third of all marine species…

Cruising Life
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For a Far-Flung Charter, Try an Outer Reef 70 on Australia’s Exotic Great Barrier Reef

If you’re thinking about a real charter adventure, take a look at Aroona, a 70-foot Outer Reef in Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef, home to some of the most exotic cruising, fishing and diving grounds in the world. Aroona can hold up to nine guests in three staterooms, all with en suite heads and showers, and is based in Cairns in North Queensland. Aroona is privately owned, and is outfitted for a memorable charter, with three tenders, snorkeling, scuba and fishing gear, two SUPs and one kayak. It has ABT stabilizers for comfort, a washer and dryer and an available sat phone.…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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On Watch

New UN Report on Global Warming: “Quite a Shock.” If Temperatures Keep Rising, Say Goodbye to Coral Reefs, the Maldives By Peter A. Janssen The United Nations just released a major report on global warming, painting a darker picture of the consequences of rising temperatures than scientists had previously thought. The report, by hundreds of scientists around the world and endorsed by 180 nations, “is quite a shock,” said Bill Hare, the author of earlier Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and a physicist. The consequence are particularly dire for coral reefs, which are vital to supporting ocean life. Warmer…

Cruising Life
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A Fast Tour of the Best of Australia, from Perth to Tasmania, with Sunseeker

Here’s a fast tour of the horizon if you’re ever cruising in Australia (Oz), from Rottnest Island off Perth on the Indian Ocean to the separate island of Tasmania off the southeast coast, the Barrier Reef and much more, all from the pages of Sunseeker Magazine, from Sunseeker Yachts. Our tour starts in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, a modern metropolis with skyscrapers and bustle. (When I was there some 30 years ago, it was much sleepier, reminding me of an earlier San Diego.) From there it’s an 11-mile offshore hop to Rottnest Island, filled with wildlife (don’t miss…

Cruising Life
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Coral Ecosystems in Great Barrier Reef Are Being Killed by Rising Sea Temperatures, Scientists Report

The Great Barrier Reef, the fishing, diving and tourist destination stretching hundreds of miles off the coast of Australia near Cairns, is in trouble. A new study, published today in Nature, says that huge sections of the coral ecosystem are already dead, or are dying, because of rising sea temperatures. (When the water is too hot, corals turn white, as in the picture above.) “We didn’t expect to see this level of destruction to the Great Barrier Reef for another 30 years,” said Terry P. Hughes, an Australian scientist and lead author of the Nature report. “In the north I…

Cruising Life
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Is the Great Barrier Reef Toast? Read this…

The Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast of Australia has been around for 25 million years, stretching over 1,400 miles and containing some 2,900 individual reefs, not to mention 1,625 species of fish and 450 species of coral. But now with climate change and warmer water and catastrophic bleaching, according to this story 50 percent of the coral in the warmer, northern section has already died. What happens next? http://www.outsideonline.com/2112086/obituary-great-barrier-reef-25-million-bc-2016?utm_content=buffera9dd8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=facebookpost