Australia’s Great Barrier Reef struggles to survive

Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef is suffering one of the most severe coral bleaching events on record, leaving scientists fearful for its survival as the impact of climate change worsens.

Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef is suffering one of the most severe coral bleaching events on record, leaving scientists fearful for its survival as the impact of climate change worsens.

For 33 years marine biologist Anne Hoggett has lived and worked on Lizard Island, a small slice of tropical paradise off Australia’s northeast tip.

She affectionally dubs it “Blizzard Island”. The only relief from the wind and teeming showers is in the powder blue waters, where sea turtles and tiger sharks rove along the Great Barrier Reef.

As Hoggett snorkels, schools of fish swim gracefully, feeding on the coral or darting between it. Some are as small as her little finger, others the colour of fire.

But thanks to climate change, it is becoming a watery graveyard of bleached reef.

“We don’t know yet if they’ve already sustained too much damage to recover or not,” said Hoggett.

The world is currently experiencing its second major coral bleaching event in 10 years, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Monday.