Visit the Great Barrier Reef before climate change kills the coral

Arlington Reef in Queensland, is part of the Great Barrier Reef. — LUKA PETERNAL/Wilkimedia Commons

Researchers at the Australian Institute of Marine Science observed record coral regrowth this year along two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef’s expanse. It’s the largest growth in 36 years of official monitoring, and it’s great news.

But it’s a problem that the regrowth was necessary at all. Without repeated heat-driven coral bleaching – four episodes in seven years – the reefs wouldn’t have needed to bounce back. Heat can chase off the algae that thrive on corals and give them their colour – hence “bleaching” – or kill the coral outright at high enough temperatures.