Coral bleaching report for the Great Barrier Reef: problems next year

Daniel Bateman The Cairns Post 22 Jun 10;

THE Great Barrier Reef has emerged from the wet season relatively bleach-free but experts warn coral bleaching could be a problem next year.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has released its final coral bleaching report for 2009-2010 summer season, showing there were low levels of coral bleaching across the entire marine park from November through to May.

Out of 483 reef reports, only 17 per cent showed minor seasonal bleaching and three showed moderate bleaching.

One such incident, reported between Horn and Thursday islands, was the worst case of coral bleaching Torres Strait islanders had seen in about 40 years.

These bleaching events were believed to be because of long periods of high sea surface temperatures related to El Nino condition.

A coral expert at the University of Queensland, Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, said it was still too early to tell what the outlook for coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef would be for the coming summer.

Sea surface temperature forecasts from the weather bureau indicate relatively warm ocean temperatures until November.

"I think they’re less accurate the more you go out in time," Dr Hoegh-Guldberg said.

"I think six months to 12 months out, that’s where their accuracy falls down."

He said, however, the long-term forecasts were becoming increasingly accurate.

"In recent years we’ve had warm water coming into summer, but then we’ve had some wind and cyclonic activity which has ended up cooling the water column," Dr Hoegh-Guldberg said.

"So we go from having quite a bit of coral bleaching occurring to having a good wind system coming through and then it’s cool."