Volunteer group Citizens of the Reef made the find as part of the Great Reef Census
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
Citizen scientists have discovered what they believe is one of the largest coral colonies ever documented on the Great Barrier Reef.
The coral spans approximately 111 metres in maximum length and covers an estimated area of 3,973 sq m – about half the size of a soccer field.
Continue reading...Researchers warn reef may reach tipping point where coral cannot recover fast enough between major catastrophic events
The Great Barrier Reef has suffered its biggest annual drop in live coral in two out of three areas monitored by scientists since 1986, a new report has revealed.
The Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims) report is the first to comprehensively document the devastating impacts of the early 2024 mass coral bleaching event – the most widespread and severe on record for the Great Barrier Reef.
Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter
Continue reading...Consecutive and severe bleaching is ‘fundamentally changing’ nature of reef, the International Coral Reef Society says
The Great Barrier Reef was hit by a sixth widespread coral bleaching event since 2016 this summer – the second time the world’s biggest coral reef has seen the phenomenon strike in back-to-back years – according to government authorities.
Scientists and conservationists reacted with dismay that widespread bleaching – driven by global heating – was becoming normalised, with one saying Australia’s next term of government may be the natural wonder’s last shot at survival.
Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter
Continue reading...Scientists say widespread damage to both world heritage-listed reefs is ‘heartbreaking’ as WA reef accumulates highest amount of heat stress on record
Australia’s two world heritage-listed reefs – Ningaloo on the west coast and the Great Barrier Reef on the east – have been hit simultaneously by coral bleaching that reef experts have called “heartbreaking” and “a profoundly distressing moment”.
Teams of scientists on both coasts have been monitoring and tracking the heat stress and bleaching extending across thousands of kilometres of marine habitat, which is likely to have been driven by global heating.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Documents seen by Guardian Australia show a sustained strategy approved by environment minister Tanya Plibersek
The Australian government carried out an international lobbying campaign to keep the Great Barrier Reef off a list of world heritage sites in danger, including dispatching politicians and officials to Unesco’s Paris headquarters and asking diplomats to gather intelligence on countries that could influence the decision.
The campaign is revealed in documents released to the Greens after a parliamentary request and show how Australia sought to influence Unesco and members of the 21-country world heritage committee in the lead up to a crunch meeting in July last year.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...More than 40% of individual corals monitored around One Tree Island reef bleached by heat stress and damaged by flesh-eating disease
More than 40% of individual corals monitored around a Great Barrier Reef island were killed last year in the most widespread coral bleaching outbreak to hit the reef system, a study has found.
Scientists tracked 462 colonies of corals at One Tree Island in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef after heat stress began to turn the corals white in early 2024. Researchers said they encountered “catastrophic” scenes at the reef.
Continue reading...Environmentalists say marine park waste regulations need updating to limit grey water and exhaust chemicals as passenger cruise numbers rise
Environmentalists and tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef say authorities must enforce stricter pollution standards on cruise liners visiting the world heritage area amid growth in passenger cruise numbers and concern that ships are dumping toxins into the water.
The Whitsunday Conservation Council says the definition of “waste” used to prevent marine discharge on the reef – which dates back to the 1970s – does not restrict discharge from sulphur “scrubbers” that have become commonplace in the shipping industry.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Analysis of high-resolution drone imagery concludes 97% of corals died at a Lizard Island reef between March and June this year
At least 97% of corals on a reef in the Great Barrier Reef’s north died during one of the worst coral bleaching events the world’s biggest reef system has ever seen, according to new analysis.
Scientists at several institutions used high-resolution drone imagery to track the bleaching and death of corals on a reef at Lizard Island.
Continue reading...WikiLeaks X account has tweeted that ‘Julian Assange is free’. Follow today’s news headlines live
‘It’s just a lazy delay’
Bill Shorten says a further delay of the Senate vote on the NDIS bill won’t actually lead to any changes:
There’s no good reason on God’s green earth to have another eight weeks of review, which isn’t actually eight weeks.
There won’t be a whole lot of new submissions come in, there won’t be some brand new arguments not considered.
I’m horrified after 12 months of reviewing the NDIS and then another six months of discussing the review including [in] the last three a Senate committee having public hearings calling for submissions.
The opposition has used words never ever said before by them.
Continue reading...Reef escapes being classed ‘in danger’ for now but the government must submit a progress report to World Heritage committee by February
Unesco has urged Australia to set more ambitious climate targets for the Great Barrier Reef in a list of recommendations to preserve its status as a world heritage site.
The report, published in Paris late on Monday, did not recommend the reef be placed on a list of sites “in danger” – a threat that has hung over the reef for years – when the 21-country world heritage committee meets next month.
Continue reading...A snapped keel is believed to have caused the vessel to overturn off Lady Elliot Island near Gladstone, Queensland
One man is dead and two others have been winched to safety after their yacht capsized, triggering a major search and rescue operation off the central Queensland coast.
A snapped keel is believed to have caused the vessel to overturn off Lady Elliot Island near Gladstone early on Sunday.
Continue reading...Final submissions begin in racial discrimination case brought by Mehreen Faruqi against Hanson. Follow the today’s news live
As we flagged earlier, the treasurer Jim Chalmers will today announce foreign investment changes, with approvals to be made quicker and greater scrutiny to be placed on potential risks.
You can read all the details on this from Peter Hannam below:
Right now, we treat investments from right around the world more or less the same. We want to streamline it for the less-risky investments so we can devote much more time and energy and resources to screening the sorts of investments that we’re seeing in critical industries – like critical minerals, critical infrastructure, critical data, and the like.
This is all about strengthening the foreign investment framework to make sure that investment is in the national interest. We want to maximise the right kind of investment, but we want to minimise risk and that’s what these changes I’ll announce today are all about.
Continue reading...Floods, cyclones, heat stress and predatory starfish contributing to impacts as fourth planet-wide bleaching event confirmed
The Great Barrier Reef is in the midst of what could be its worst summer on record with a widespread and extreme coral bleaching event coming on top of floods, two cyclones and outbreaks of coral-eating starfish, according to an official Australian government report.
The “summer snapshot” report released by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science said: “Compared [with] previous summers, cumulative impacts have been much higher this summer and a widespread bleaching event is still unfolding.”
Continue reading...The percentage of reef areas experiencing bleaching-level heat stress is increasing by about 1% a week, scientists say
Global heating has pushed the world’s coral reefs to a fourth planet-wide mass bleaching event that is on track to be the most extensive on record, US government scientists have confirmed.
Some 54% of ocean waters containing coral reefs have experienced heat stress high enough to cause bleaching, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Coral Reef Watch said.
Continue reading...Paper dates 82 pottery pieces found in single dig site at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old
Groundbreaking archaeological research may have upended the longstanding belief that Aboriginal Australians did not make pottery.
A paper published in the Quaternary Science Reviews on Wednesday details the finding of 82 pottery pieces from a single dig site on a Great Barrier Reef island, dates them at between 3,000 and 2,000 years old and determines that the pots were most likely made by Aboriginal people using locally sourced clay and temper.
Continue reading...Review found ongoing ‘mistrust’ among farmers, including many who remain unconvinced by need for pollution regulations
A review of the Queensland government’s Great Barrier Reef protection regulations has found that almost half the affected farmers still believe there is little or no scientific evidence to support pollution reduction rules.
The laws, passed in 2019, were based on scientific advice that limits on sediment and chemical runoff were needed in the reef catchment, amid concerns about water quality.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Fears coral bleaching moving south to Lord Howe, Norfolk islands after southern Great Barrier Reef experiences worst heat stress since 1985
Scientists fear excessive ocean heat – which is bleaching corals in parts of the Great Barrier Reef – is now hitting the world’s most southern coral reef at the World Heritage-listed Lord Howe island.
There are also concerns ocean temperatures are reaching dangerous levels for corals at Australia’s remote Norfolk Island, which is about 1400km east of Queensland’s Gold Coast.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
BoM issues wind weather warning for Tasmania
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for damaging winds in parts of Tasmania.
Australia has a very important role to play as a signatory to the ICJ, a signatory to the genocide convention, to ensure the protection of Palestinian civilians and ensure that the investigations that are occurring with UNRWA … don’t inhibit funding and delivery of services that are going to basically save lives in coming days and weeks and months.
UNRWA has done the right thing in standing down the staff, sacking them. They have got an independent investigation occurring. 150 UN UNRWA staff have been killed, their families and children as well, over the past several months of this conflict. The UN is in the middle, sandwiched in the conflict, trying to do its best to save lives. Donor governments like Australia need to bear this in mind that, if funding ceases, there is nowhere else to turn to. People will simply collapse and die.
Continue reading...Strong waves and sediment-laden freshwater pushed out from river catchments may have damaged parts of reef system, experts say
Back-to-back cyclones crossing the Great Barrier Reef have experts concerned vast flood plumes and heavy waves may have damaged parts of the world’s biggest coral reef system.
Reef scientists and conservationists went into the summer worried that an El Niño weather pattern would elevate the risk of mass coral bleaching.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed.
Just circling back to QFES assistant commissioner Kevin Walsh, who mentioned the state of the roads and reminded people in the area to be very careful when driving around.
Walsh said:
Monday afternoon was the first opportunity that we had to send in rotary aircraft, so we got rotary-wing aircraft in large numbers up in Far North Queensland at the moment through private contractors and also Australian Defence Force. So they’re very busy in the air and relocating people.
And I think the other message also is to have a look at those roads and the damage that they have sustained. There are many roads still under water where you can not see that damage. So it’s really important for the local people to realise that it’s still very, very dangerous to be driving through flooded waters because you can’t see the damage of the roads underneath it. That’s one of our key messages we’d like the local communities to heed.
So far we’ve only been able to assess about 60 properties. I think throughout today though, we’ll get a better sense of how many properties are affected, and then we’ll be looking for further packages of disaster assistance that will put together or put together with the commonwealth.
But just judging from the other emergencies that I’ve been a part of, we’re talking billions not millions [of dollars].
Continue reading...