Australia's Great Barrier Reef Suffers Worst Coral Decline On Record

SYDNEY, Aug 6 (Bernama-WAM)  -- Australia's Great Barrier Reef has suffered the largest decline in coral cover in two of its three regions over the past year, research released on Wednesday showed, following a mass bleaching that was among the worst on record.

The Emirates News Agency (WAM), in its report, cited the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) as saying that the reef has experienced the largest annual decline in coral cover in its northern and southern regions since monitoring began 39 years ago, with coral cover dropping by between a quarter and a third after several years of solid growth.

"We are now seeing increased volatility in the levels of hard coral cover," said Mike Emslie, leader of the AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Programme. "This is a phenomenon that has emerged over the last 15 years and points to an ecosystem under stress."

The reef, the world's largest living ecosystem, stretches for some 2,400 km (1,500 miles) off the coast of the northern state of Queensland.

Since 2016, the reef has experienced five summers of mass coral bleaching, when large sections of the reef turn white due to heat stress, putting them at greater risk of dying.

The 2024 event had the largest footprint ever recorded on the reef, with high to extreme bleaching across all three of its regions, the report said.

-- BERNAMA-WAM