by “You can see it on their faces,” says scuba diving instructor Elliot Peters. “There’s definitely regret and sadness.”
Peters works at a resort on Heron Island in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef and, in recent weeks, has had to tell curious guests why so much of the coral around the island is turning bone white.
The reef is in the midst of its fifth mass bleaching event in eight years – an alarming trend driven by global warming in a year that saw record global ocean temperatures.
Peters has never seen a major coral bleaching event before, but this summer he has seen ancient boulder corals that can live for hundreds of years bleaching and showing signs of death.
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“If anything it’s motivating me,” he says. “It’s opening the doors to get people talking about climate change and reef health. People are thanking us for telling the truth about what’s going on here.”
The Great Barrier Reef is a major export industry for Australia, with a 2017 report alone estimating that the reef supports 64,000 jobs and contributes $6.4bn to the national economy.
But as the effects of global warming on the reef began to make global headlines in 2016 and 2017, tensions in the tourism industry began to emerge. One tourist head called stories of disastrous bleaching a “big white lie”.
“The reef is the most significant natural attraction this country has to offer,” says Daniel Gschwind, professor at Griffith University’s tourism institute and chairman of the committee representing reef tourism to the government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.
“It’s a challenge because it’s a phenomenon, [global heating] ultimately affecting what we sell.”
‘If the reef dies, we die’
Gschwind says for years tourism operators have been reluctant to talk to guests about the threat of climate change.
There are predictions of mass on the reef in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and now again in 2024. But for an ecosystem the size of Italy, the effects are not uniform.
Coral bleaching describes a process in which the coral animal expels and discolors the algae that live in its tissues and gives them many of their nutrients.
Without algae, a coral’s white skeleton can be seen through its translucent flesh, giving it a bleached appearance.
Mass coral bleaching over large areas, first noted in the 1980s around the Caribbean Sea, is caused by rising ocean temperatures.
Some corals also display fluorescent colors under stress when they release a pigment that filters light. Sunlight also plays a role in stimulating bleaching.
Corals can survive bleaching if the temperature is not too great or too long. But extreme heat waves can completely kill marine corals.
Coral bleaching can also have sub-lethal effects, including increased susceptibility to disease and reduced rates of growth and reproduction.
Scientists say the gaps between bleaching events are becoming too short to allow reefs to recover.
Coral reefs are considered to be one of the planet’s ecosystems most at risk from global warming. Reefs support fisheries that feed hundreds of millions of people, as well as supporting major tourism industries.
The world’s largest coral reef system – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef – has experienced seven major bleaching events since 1998, five of which have occurred in the past decade.
In any given year, some reefs escape heat stress, some turn white but then regain their color, and some corals die. Bleaching can make corals more susceptible to disease, slow their growth and inhibit their reproduction.
Government scientists have been conducting water and aerial surveys this week to assess the bleaching of the entire reef, but it could be weeks, or even months, before a clear picture of how severe the bleaching has been this year.
The long-term prognosis for the reef is not good. As global warming continues, the likelihood of more severe heat stress events is increasing.
“It’s hard to pinpoint a bleaching event,” says Gschwind. “With an event like this, by the time it’s communicated to a consumer in London or Shanghai the message they get may be ‘the reef is no longer worth visiting’. That’s the challenge facing the tourism industry and that’s why many operators struggle with this.”
Divers on tourist boats are often the first to raise the alarm, and this year operators have sent more than 5,000 observers to the marine parks authority.
“That’s where the industry and the operators see their social role. They are the ones who tell this story – the operators are the gatekeepers,” says Gschwind.
“They see what global warming is doing to the natural environment we all depend on. If the reef dies, then we die. We are the early warning system for what is going on in the world.”
The emotional toll of a bleached reef
Since back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, the park authority has worked with the tourism industry to establish Master Reef Guides, a growing cohort of more than 120 dive professionals trained by scientists and traditional owners in how to express health. of the reef and its threats.
Fiona Merida, marine biologist and director of reef education and engagement at the park authority, says that giving tourism operators detailed information on what was happening at the sites on they visited them and that it gives them confidence to talk to visitors about it. bleached.
But she says some reef guides are experiencing “ecological grief” themselves this year as they see the places they love suffer. Reef guides have set up a “buddy check” system where guides can check in on each other’s mental health.
Yolanda Waters is the founder of the advocacy group Divers for Climate and has been diving south of the reef in recent weeks.
You doubt the climate in every group, but I see that becoming less and less
Tahn Miller, diving instructor
“It was bleached coral as far as the eye could see,” she says. “I didn’t want to go back into the water. It’s a restorative place for me and it’s horrible that you don’t want to go back there.”
Waters is a former diving instructor and as part of research at the University of Queensland, she interviewed more than 650 reef visitors in recent years.
“I noticed how difficult these conversations were,” she says. “Tourists ask a lot of questions and they may feel confronted if people have paid $300 to go on the reef. A big question asked about tourism is: ‘Is the reef dying? Tell me.’
“The reality is much more complicated, but they want to know from the people who see the reef every day.
“We got it [tourists] really open to hearing about climate change. In fact, most were not only open to the information, but wanted more. And they wanted to know what they could do.”
“It’s a difficult thing: how do we do this in a way that inspires action and doesn’t put people off. But you have to face the truth – there’s still so much to spare, and a lot is left out.”
‘The time is now’
Tahn Miller has been working as a diving instructor and guide at Wavelength Reef Cruises in Port Douglas in far north Queensland for 15 years.
Miller remembers hearing stories a decade ago about how some dive guides in other parts of the reef would not mention climate change to guests lest they get ideas that the natural treasure was dying or it was not worth visiting.
But he says there has been an evolution in the industry, and now many more divers are feeling empowered to talk to visitors about climate change – but only if visitors want to hear it.
“You have a climate of doubt in every group, but I see that diminishing,” he says. “I tell them I’m not there to change anyone’s mind, but this is what I saw. I try to be honest with them.”
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Miller says after the 2016 bleaching, he saw reefs recovering. But his hope has been exhausted in recent years.
There are a number of tour operators who are running small reef restoration projects in the areas they visit, including coral replanting.
“Some of the corals I planted – hundreds of them – have already died [this summer],” he says.
“The time is now … we have to change because if we don’t, we lose huge expanses of reef.”
Back on Heron Island, Peters says tourists stop him asking what they can do to help the reef.
“I start asking them to acknowledge their respect for the reef and that we need to do more. I leave them with a tip or two,” he says.
“I say they should ‘use their voice’ and find out about the policies of the people they could vote for. And I ask them to think about where their money is being held – is it in a bank that invests in fossil fuels?”
