Coral Killing Fields?

The Great Barrier Reef, the eighth wonder of the world. A natural habitat of which all Australians were grateful. Kevin Rudd's comments were heard loud and clear. Alarm bells were ringing.He had said that if "temperatures went through the roof," the Reef as we know it would be gone.

Was 'Reefgate' just around the corner? Threats of extinction had been around for some time, with 2030 allegedly the Reef's 'Armageddon.' The Member for Bennelong, Maxine McKew was strangely silent. In 1999, as host of the 7.30 Report on the ABC, she had been anything but.

The 7.30 Report was a current affairs show that had influence beyond its ratings, as it welcomed any and every noteworthy politician who had something 'worthwhile' to say on points of interest. In 1999, it wasn't a politician but rather a reef biologist who was interviewed to warn people that the Great Barrier Reef had a life expectancy of only thirty years. "Impending doom" were the words used by McKew on July 6th 1999.

The report stated that as sea temperatures rose, coral bleaching occurred, leading to the process of photosynthesis being shut down. In the words of Bernard Bowen, the reporter, "coral killing fields" are the result.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a reef biologist out of Sydney University at the time, and the interviewee, conceded that if modelling done by climate scientists projected that the temperature at which corals existed in 1999 was exceeded, coral reefs would die away. Hence the Barrier Reef was, basically, endangered.

BBC News took the impending doom seriously when, in a report on January 13, 1999, they declared, as a result of an announcement by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), that the reef was "dying a death of a thousand cuts" due, in part, to prawn trawling destroying seabed animals which can take up to twenty years to recover. The ACF was calling for urgent action.

Urgent action indeed! On the European Tribune's website on September 3rd, 2009, Charlie Veron, former chief scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) was quoted as saying "the future is horrific...This is the path of a mass extinction event..."

The impending doom forecast for the Reef could mar the tourist industry. Dat cruises in air-conditioned catamarans, viewing coral from a glass bottomed boat, seafood lunches, not to mention the snorkelling of the reef that so many of us took very much for granted. Was all this at risk?

At Cape Tribulation one could stroll along the headland and see views of where the rainforest meets the reef. Port Douglas, Mossman Gorge, tours along the Daintree River. These places and experiences were to be cherished, preserved, no matter what the cost. A tour guide whose job it was to take tourists down the Daintree River for the day had once been asked: "will we see a crocodile?" He had a dry humour. "Not if you close your eyes", came his response. It was his way of saying 'welcome to Far-North Queensland.' They breed them differently up there.

Now experts in the field were saying the Reef was dying?

Ray Berkelmans, a research scientist in climate ecology and climate change with AIMS for the past 10 years, having worked for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park for 14 years prior, had been reported over the years on this issue and had published many papers and journals.

In Discover Magazine in January 2003 he explained that corals and algae work hand in hand. Algae produces food and corals protect them. But if sea temperatures rise too high, the system fails and reefs suffer.

By 2004, the Reef was said to have been spared from coral bleaching by Cyclone Fritz, which had the effect of cooling the waters.

By the end of that year, Berkelmans was announcing the possibility of "forecasting" coral bleaching. This was due to work conducted by the Sea Temperature Monitoring Program, which, it was said, in a media release from AIMS in December 2004, "operates on a shoe-string with the help of tourist operators, other researchers, volunteer dive groups, and consultants..." Such important work relating to a World Heritage Area such as The Great Barrier Reef might be expected to receive assistance from other sources also, such as the Commonwealth. Was Kevin Rudd listening?

Five years later, and things apparently changed in the Reef we know and love. A physicist with James Cook University out of Townsville by the name of Professor Peter Ridd, had declared in an article in The Australian in December 2009, that "instead of dying, the Reef could expand towards Brisbane" and was "in bloody brilliant shape." Apparently it had been discovered that reefs around the Townsville area "can withstand water temperatures in the low thirties."

Berkelmans made mention of the fact the Reef was two thousand kilometres long and within it were around three thousand reefs. He alleged it was highly unlikely the reef was going anywhere anytime soon. As is the want of someone with a reputation to uphold, a clarification of the optimism that now surrounded the Reef needed to be aired. Berklemans suggested the Reef could not expect "to stay lucky forever." Such was the tone of the article entitled 'How the reef became blue again' that appeared in The Australian on December 19, 2009. A Christmas present of sorts, to be sure.

Words of impending doom seemed to have been drowned out by words of reason. Catastrophe averted - for now.