Latest Great Barrier Reef Stories
Australian tourism authorities said a British man has been chosen for the best job in the world, a caretaker position on a Great Barrier Reef island. Tourism Queensland said Ben Southall, 34, of Hampshire, England, was chosen from a pool of 34,000 applicants from around the world for the six-month, $106,000 position as caretaker of Hamilton Island, The Times of London reported Wednesday. Southall's duties will include updating a weekly blog as well as video and photo diaries with details of...
Scientists reported Thursday that a section of Australia's Great Barrier Reef - in danger of being killed by global warming within mere decades - has regenerated itself in record time.This partial regeneration is perhaps more appropriately being referred to as a mere "lucky escape" by the head of research for the authority that preserves the World Heritage-listed reef, Laurence McCook.Due to global warming, this expanse of badly damaged coral at Keppel Island began experiencing an increase in...
A study released on Friday said coral reefs off the southeast coast of Taiwan have turned black with disease possibly due to sewage discharge, threatening fragile undersea ecosystems and tourism.Researcher Chen Chao-lun of Taiwan's state-funded Academia Sinica said the discovery suggests that coral is suffering widely in waters up to 16.4 feet deep and less than a mile offshore from two outlying islands.Chen, whose began doing research with local environmental groups in 2007, was shocked at...
Australian officials are seeking applicants to fill a dream job that includes swimming, sailing and living rent-free in a villa with a pool. Anthony Hayes, chief executive of Tourism Queensland, said the agency is searching for someone willing to spend six months on the tropical Hamilton Island while blogging and posting pictures and videos to draw tourists to the area, the BBC reported Monday. Hayes said the caretaker, who would be paid $103,000 for six months, would also be charged with...
Scientists said on Thursday that coral growth in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has fallen to its lowest rate for 400 years, in a troubling sign for the world's oceans.Glen De'ath and colleagues at the Australian Institute of Marine Science believe the slow growth could threaten a variety of marine ecosystems that rely on the reef and signal similar problems for other similar organisms worldwide.The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral bed in the world, composed of over 2,900 individual...
Scientists at the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) report a rapid recovery in coral reefs off the coast of Indonesia damaged by the 2004 Asian tsunami.Some had feared the reefs might take a decade to recover. However, the WCS team found evidence of fast growth of young corals in some badly hit areas in the Indian Ocean. A WCS spokesman reported that reefs damaged prior to the tsunami were also recovering.Some communities are foregoing destructive fishing techniques and...
We've all seen the satellite images of Earth at night--the bright blobs and shining webs that tell the story of humanity's endless sprawl.These pictures are no longer just symbols of human impact, however, but can be used to objectively measure it, according to a study in the December 2008 issue of Geocarto International, a peer-reviewed journal on geoscience and remote sensing.Travis Longcore, a USC geographer and expert in light pollution, collaborated with an international team, led by...
New research in Australia has found disturbing new evidence to show that the world's coral reefs may be in more immediate danger than some experts previously considered. Australian scientists studied the effects of climate change and rising sea temperatures to find that these events may speed the process of coral bleaching, thus leading to the destruction of the world's reefs."Previous predictions of coral bleaching have been far too conservative, because they didn't factor in the effect...
The roadmap to the future of the gorgeously-decorated fish which throng Australia's coral reefs and help earn the nation $5 billion a year from tourism may well be written in their genes.Of particular importance may be to protect "˜pioneer' fish populations which are able to re-colonize regions of reef devastated by global warming and other impacts or settle new areas as the corals move south, says Dr Line Bay of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University (JCU)...
Algae continues to appear near one of the world's largest reefs, and experts warn that climate change could trigger a global coral die-offs by 2100.Parts of the reef have already died and have been taken over by algae caused by pollution from sewage residues flowing out of the Mexican resort city of Cancun.Coral reefs like Chitales, near the northern tip of a Caribbean reef chain stretching from Mexico to Honduras, are dying around the world as people and cities put more stress on the...
Latest Great Barrier Reef Reference Libraries
The Barrier Reef Anemonefish (Amphiprion akindynos) is native to the marine lagoons and reefs in the Western Pacific Ocean. It lives at a depth of around eighty-two feet in temperatures fluctuating between fifty degrees Fahrenheit to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Its range includes northern New South Wales, the Loyalty Islands, Tonga, New Caledonia, Coral Sea, and the Great Barrier Reef. They are typically seen near or within the tentacles of their host anemones. They will inhabit anemones like...
Alcyoniidae is a family of leathery corals that occur globally in temperate and tropical seas. These reef dwellers are often found in wave-exposed areas of reef crests, less turbid waters in lagoons, on steep slopes, under overhangs, and at depths of 100 feet and deeper. A colony of leathery coral is stiff, hard, and inflexible. It is composed of tiny polyps projecting from a shared leathery tissue. There are two kinds of polyps seen in Alcyoniidae corals: autozooids have long trunks and...
The Elongate Surgeonfish, (Acanthurus mata), is a species of tropical fish found in the Indo-Pacific, and can be found as far north as Southern Japan and south to the Great Barrier Reef. Some also live as far west as South Africa and as far east as the Tuamotu Islands. Its main habitat is steep slopes around coral reefs. This is a light blue fish with numerous brown stripes running down the length of the body, although over time it is able to change color to become blue overall. It has a...
The Pajama Cardinalfish (Sphaeramia nematoptera) is a fish that belongs to the Apogonidae family. These fish are a popular aquarium fish. The Pajama Cardinalfish can grow to be a length of 3 inches. The fish has red eyes and broad, dark, vertical "waistband" that is sprinkled with red spots that leads toward the tail. This fish has low vulnerability. Pajama Cardinalfish circulate throughout much of the West Pacific, from Jave to Fiji and from south of the Ryukyu Islands to the Great...
Naso vlamingii is a tropical fish with common names Vlamingii tang and Bignose unicornfish. Appearance They are relatively large fish in comparison to other fish in the Acanthuridae family easily reaching 23.62 in (60 cm). As a juvenile its coloration is a dingy green with blue spots and lips later changing to a bluer fish with purple markings. While the fish sleeps or when it is frightened it turns a muddy brown as camouflage. Diet The Vlamingii tang is mostly herbivorous but...
