Corals of the Great Barrier Reef losing their sheen due to global warming

In the opinion of scientists, nearly 93% of Australia's Great Barrier Reef is affected by coral bleaching which is presumed to be a direct fallout of abnormally warm ocean temperatures attributable to global warming. The GBR is a World Heritage site and this damage to the corals is established by the footage released by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 20 April 2016.

Experts had carried out extensive aerial and underwater surveys along the full 1,429-mile length of the Great Barrier Reef in March and April when the damage has come to light. The finding is that only 7% are not affected or 68 of the 911 individual reefs examined.
It was also revealed that between 60% and 100% of corals were severely bleached on 316 reefs - nearly all of these were in the northern half of the Reef. Another finding is that the reefs in Sydney Harbour were affected by minor bleaching for the first time.
The study was undertaken by the National Coral Bleaching Taskforce and the fact is that, at the moment, nearly 50% of the coral is already dead or dying. Coral bleaching occurs when abnormal environmental conditions, like warmer sea temperatures, make the corals to expel tiny photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae. This drains them of their color. Of course, coral can recover if the temperature drops and the algae are able to recolonize them.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Endangered bottle nosed dolphins of the Great Barrier Reef

#bottlenosedolphin #greatbarrierreef #SarahDwyer #ecosystem The bottle nosed dolphins have been put in the category of endangered species in New Zealand. Here, their population is concentrated in three main known regions – namely, Doubtful Sound in Fiordland, between the Marlborough Sounds and Westport, and around the Bay of Islands area.
Researchers have now come across another hot-spot for these dolphins - near the shores of Great Barrier Island. This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 1 April 2015.

This has been revealed by Massey University marine biologist Sarah Dwyer who has conducted study of the nearly 21,000-Km of water in the Hauraki Gulf. She has succeeded in pin-pointing this location as an important all-year-round spot for around 170 individual dolphins.
As per the estimates of Department of Conservation, approximately 450 dolphins make up the Bay of Islands population whereas the size of the groups in the gulf observed by Miss Dwyer were much larger.
She has concluded that since the number of dolphins in the Bay of Islands was on the decline, it was necessary to preserve the eco-system of the gulf. The gulf area was a busy area because of plenty of shipping traffic and this poses a threat to the dolphins.
Miss Dwyer had conducted her 279-day study on a dedicated research boat. She had undertaken visual surveys using occupancy modelling, which factored in the probability of spotting a dolphin or whale. Previous mapping exercises have relied mostly on tourist vessels.
The bottle nosed dolphins can reach lengths of nearly 4m, are dark or light grey on the back with white on the undersides and these are particularly susceptible to human impacts due to their coastal nature.

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