Yet more footage of Great Barrier dying reef not dying

Jen Marohasy went hunting for bleached coral:

What is the true state of the Great Barrier Reef? … In January 2020, Emmy Award winning cameraman Clint Hempsall, and IPA Senior Fellow Jennifer Marohasy decided to find out. They spent a week exploring the Ribbon Reefs 250kms to the north east of Cairns in search of coral bleaching – the process of corals turning white as a result of warmer water temperature, which climate scientists say is being caused by climate change. Some argue 60% of the coral at the Ribbon Reefs was irretrievably bleached in 2016.

Somewhere among 350,000 square kilometers of coral reef, Jen Marohasy had no trouble finding some happy corals,  giant cod, and cute nemo fish.

The IPA and the B. Macfie Family Foundation supports and publishes the video:

Colorful corals of the Great Barrier Reef

Don’t believe your lying eyes. Incandescent light globes are killing the corals one by one, air conditioners cause fish to act reckless, and only more solar panels and windmills can save them. You know it makes sense.

Corals, Great Barrier Reef, Ribbon's Edge, IPA, photo 2020.

Living coral.

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Many of the corals grow on vertical formations which are not visible on aerial mapping, which supposedly tells us how much of the reef is bleached.

 

Corals, Great Barrier Reef, Ribbon's Edge, IPA, photo 2020.

More living coral.

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Corals, Great Barrier Reef, Ribbon's Edge, IPA, photo 2020.

Still more living coral.

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Corals, Great Barrier Reef, Ribbon's Edge, IPA, photo 2020.

A Potato Cod, not acting much like a potato.

This was filmed at Ribbon’s Edge north east of Cooktown. Shot in January while the Unprecedented Apocalyptic Australian Fires were raging.

Someday Jen is going to have to take me diving.

 Jen Marohasy’s Blog

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47 comments to Yet more footage of Great Barrier dying reef not dying

  • #

    Did she visit any of the red dots on the 2020 map here? I’m sure she has sought access to the high res map/ GSP data for each dot so she can hone in on the relevant locations

    https://www.coralcoe.org.au/for-managers/coral-bleaching-and-the-great-barrier-reef

    Not very exciting if she just visited the green dots.

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Gee Aye

      Thanks for putting up that piece of ARC pseudo-science.

      Aerial survey. WOW. How did they ever see through all that dirty CO2 from way up there?

      Perhaps these super pseudo-scientists have got X-ray vision?

      Red dots sitting right along-side green dots? Amazing vision. Yep. They’re gotta be colour blind. What else could possibly account for that?

      I flew up and down the reef for near on fifteen years, spread-eagling the ’90s. Never once did I see dots. I saw and met a lotta dolts though. They all tended to be luminous green and working in one or other of the many so-called “academic” institutions that dot the Queensland coast. Their favourite tipple was Kool-aid. The green flavoured variety.

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      • #

        Goodo… visit those places, obtain the comparative data and get back to me

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        • #
          Dave

          So visit those places?

          Like in an aeroplane and take photos Geeeye?

          Why would you want Jen to go to the skies and take photos from a plane & get comparative data?

          Diving & planes are chalk & cheese surely you have to nominate a link to underwater photography to compare with Jen’s videos?

          Comparative means:

          “involving the systematic observation of the similarities or dissimilarities between two or more branches of science or subjects of study.”

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          • #
            Gee aye

            Some data, any data would help. Cinematographic beauty is not data

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            • #
              Sceptical Sam

              Data you say? Your lot invent their own – from bristle pines to the adjustment of temp data to support preconceived notions.

              I’m reminded of the clear insight displayed by Prof Peter Ridd, who made this comment back in 2016 at the height of the JCU pseudo-science embarrassment, and in the context of the then emerging problem with scientific integrity:

              “Is the situation in marine science likely to be worse than in medicine and pharmaceuticals, psychology, education? Do we have a decent system of replication and checking of results?”

              You, Gee Aye, would do well to reflect on what Prof Ridd had to say then. It applies equally today – and especially in the area of so-called “environmental science”.

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            • #
              John F. Hultquist

              Every photo is worth a thousand data.
              Or something like that.

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              • #
                Kalm Keith

                And dat is da truf.

                Dat data is sooo important, more importanta dan da syentifik method!

                There are no grants widdout dat Data.

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            • #
              sophocles

              If nobody does it to your satisfaction, that leaves you to choose between only two alternatives:
              Either:
              1. Put up and shut up
              or:
              2. Get out there and do it yourself.

              Can’t dive? There are schools, so extend your horizons and stretch your comfort zones. Learn a new skill. If Jo wants to, why not you?

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  • #
    Dennis

    It’s truly amazing what a difference $440 million of taxpayer’s monies donated to a small research organisation can achieve so quickly.

    sarc.

    240

  • #
    Mal

    With alarmists, never let the truth get in the way of a good story (ie lie)

    150

    • #
      sophocles

      never let the truth get in the way of a good story (ie lie)

      No, no, no, no, no … it’s not lying. Never. It’s “communicating concerns” and “raising awarenesses” (plural 😀 ) … there’s just so many!

      Evidence? What’s that? Evidence is just not necessary; who needs it?

      180

  • #
    Contemptible Blackguard

    Jo the giant slayer rides again – brilliant.

    150

  • #
    Mike Jonas

    re “coral bleaching – the process of corals turning white as a result of warmer water temperature” – more likely a result of temporary drop in sea level?

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  • #
    John Watt

    Great pictures! Perhaps Peter Ridd could elaborate on the bleaching issue. I suspect it is something that happens naturally throughout the reef’s lifetime.

    At present the Gore/Greta syndrome has a large part of the lemming population searching high and low for “problems”. If there isn’t a problem then that’s a problem!

    80

  • #
    PeterPetrum

    Look, I watched that 12 minute video as soon as I opened my email this morning and read Jen’s email with the link. What stupendous photography and what beauty revealed by Jen and her team. I note that Jen commented on the fact that the “bleaching” was reported in 2016, after the cyclones that year, and that she and her team, in a whole week of diving, had trouble finding any bleached coral to film, so extensive was the recovery by living, vibrant coral and all the other forms of sea life that depend on vibrant corals for their survival. This short film is one that David Attenborough really should watch! It should also be shown in every biology class in every school in Australia.

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    • #
      YallaYPoora Kid

      You can add Obama for the list of recommended viewers plus all of Hollywood and any other acting or arts aligned persons + + +. The list is quite extensive include most of our stupid and ignorant pollies.

      30

  • #
    yarpos

    QANTAS booked out a sightseeing “flight to nowhere” in 10 minutes today.

    One of the attractions of the flight was a scenic pass over a good chunk of the GBR

    Burning “fossil fuel” just for fun. Hair is on fire somewhere.

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  • #
    MrGrimNasty

    “What’s the difference between a Cod and a Groper……..”

    There must be a million punchlines to that one. Of course some people spoil the joke potential by sticking a ‘u’ in.

    40

  • #
    Deano

    I know 0 about coral. But I do know that good science involves noticing contradictory evidence and Jennifer Marohasy is presenting it here. Perhaps she should show the areas of dead coral? Perhaps, but I’m pretty sure her role here is to present the other side of the story. The ABC presents stories showing nothing but dead coral as if the whole reef is bleached.

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  • #
    The Depraved and MOST Deplorable (and still asleep) Vlad the Impaler

    Please help a land-locked Wyoming professional Geologist Yank:

    So, this is the first time in the 20+ million year history of the GBR that it has had any type of bleaching, corals going extinct, growing back; or any type of sea-level change, or climate change; or any other event(s) that might have had an impact on the ecosystem, or individual species living there … …

    Right?

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    • #
      Rowjay

      Hello Impaler – for your information from our esteemed Australian CSIRO:

      Sea level varied by over 100 metres (mostly lower) during glacial-interglacial cycles as the major ice sheets waxed and waned as a result of changes in summer solar radiation in high northern hemisphere latitudes. Paleo data from corals indicate that sea level was 4 to 6 m (or more) above present day sea levels during the last interglacial period, about 125 000 years ago.

      Our precious corals were high and dry a hundred metres or so above palaeo sea levels about 20,000 years ago for a few thousand years, but still managed to re-populate. The more recent (<20,000 year) 4-6 m rises and falls have not managed to kill the reef – what makes people think that ±5 millimetres is going to kill it? Give nature a chance, and it will take advantage of any situation – part of its DNA.

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      • #
        The Depraved and MOST Deplorable (and still asleep) Vlad the Impaler

        Thanks much for that; it helps to understand that this ‘non-event’ is just coral life living its life-cycle in a more-or-less normal fashion. That, plus the comment by Mike Bugler, #15, should put this ‘die-off’ into perspective. Ridd’s assessment was spot-on, an ‘inconvenient truth’ for the doomsayers.

        Gee, it’s survived triple-digit metre sea-level changes, changes in salinity, changes in turbidity, changes in temperature, and somehow it’s still there.

        Doesn’t sound all that endangered to me … … …

        30

  • #
    thingadonta

    Never mind, Terry Hughes just needs a few misaligned pictures from 100 years ago to say there is nothing there.

    50

    • #
      GlenM

      Yeah ,let me tell you what a sinecure up there at JCU and AIMS for such lazy academics. Lotsa computers and photos of nemo and so on ,but no rigor otherwise they would have updated their data from last decade on coral growth.

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      • #
        sophocles

        they would have updated their data from last decade on coral growth.

        up to date? update? last decade?

        That’s work! Why live/play in a tropical university paradise if you have to work? Why update when you can just invent?

        30

  • #
    A Crooks

    Why does no one ever mention Ningaloo Reef? Surely it must be dying too? Surely it needs a few million dollars a school of grant-feeding bottom dwelling marine scientists to stop its bleaching?

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    • #
      Chris

      Ningaloo is going gangbusters, I guess it is just too far away for the scientists and the amenities aren’t that great.
      Also a tropical coral reef grows just off Rottnest – an hour’s ferry ride from Perth. It is a favourite diving site and apparently that is also healthy and thriving. The warm Leeuwin current brings both tropical fish and baby coral to Rottnest, it then travels around the coast and helps to keep southern Tasmania warmer than it should be.

      40

  • #
    Adam Davison

    Being of curious mind I went searching for actual data of water temperature on the GBR.
    Found the site by Australian Institute of Marine Science … AIMS. Just go to maps.aims.gov.au
    I have looked at a number of records but for the life of me I cannot find anything extraordinary in the temperature records i looked at.
    Perhaps someone with more diligence than I can find the so called increase in water temperature.
    cheers

    80

  • #
    Mike Bugler

    Someone asked about what coral bleaching is. Well, coral is a symbiotic arrangement between the basic coral organism and symbiotic zooxanthellae. The coral gives the zoox a home, and in return it benefits from sugars produced by them, giving the coral energy for growth. The zoox give corals their colour, as the basic coral matrix is a dirty whitish grey. Bleaching occurs when, due to stress, the coral ejects the zoox from its matrix, and goes into a sort of stasis.
    Stresses can include warmer water, colder water, cloudy water, clear water, direct exposure to light, freshwater and so on, and the zoox-free coral exhibits the form we know as being bleached. The coral is not dead, but cannot last for a long time without the zoox, with the time varying from species to species. Removal of the stress generally results in the coral welcoming the zooxs back, and resuming its previous colour. Over time, if the stressor remains, to some degree, the coral assemblage in place will evolve, with more stress-resistant spp – ie, those able to recover quicker – gradually predominating.
    Many of the actual mechanisms for this process remain unknown

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  • #
    Karen

    This is a giant pile of deceptive bullshit. These pictures have no context. They were not taken by experts in reef biology; they were shot by amateur divers. Show me evidence from actual scientists and not lying crap.

    [Perhaps you could offer some evidence to the contrary Karen?]AD

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