Latest Great Barrier Reef Stories
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As anyone who follows politics knows, public policy is a process that can take years or decades to hammer out, especially when it comes to certain issues. Unfortunately, the forces of nature are always in a state of flux, which can make it difficult to develop policy around them. With this in mind, Australian researchers set out to study the effects of climate change and temperature dynamics around the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and its...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The Middle Reef, part of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, is growing more quickly than reefs in other areas with lower levels of sediment stress, a new study has found. Rapid coral reef growth has been identified in environments with large amounts of sediment, conditions previously thought to be detrimental to reef growth. The study, led by the University of Exeter with an international team of scientists, is published today (1...
Widespread skin cancer has been identified for the first time in wild marine fish populations, new research has shown. A collaborative study between Newcastle University, UK, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science published today in the academic journal PLoS ONE - reveals the incidence of melanoma in the coral trout, a species found on the Great Barrier Reef and directly beneath the world's largest hole in the ozone layer. This is the first time skin cancer has been diagnosed in...
Fish With Skin Cancer? By: Erika Dunayer, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and is the leading cause of death from skin disease. Over 9,000 people die from Melanoma every year in the United States. Researchers are now starting to see evidence of the disease in fish! A collaborative study between Newcastle University, UK, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science reveals the incidence of melanoma in the coral...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Have you ever wondered how the Great Barrier Reef came to be? Research conducted by Queensland University of Technology geologist Dr Scott Bryan indicates that volcanic activity in the Southwest Pacific could help to save the Great Barrier Reef, but it could also be what caused it to form in the first place. Dr Bryan and colleagues studied the westward flow or rafting of pumice after volcanic eruptions in Tonga in 2001 and...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online The first clear evidence that no-take protected areas can help restock exploited fish populations on neighboring reefs was presented at the International Coral Reef Symposium today. These answers will help resolve a long-running discussion worldwide about whether areas blocked off to all forms of fishing help replenish fish numbers outside the marine protected areas (MPAs). “Using DNA fingerprinting technology, we now can...
Coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Great Barrier Reef, recover faster from major stresses than their Caribbean counterparts, leading marine scientists said today. Dr George Roff and Professor Peter Mumby from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and The University of Queensland told the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium in Cairns that coral reefs in the Indo-Pacific Ocean are naturally tougher than the Caribbean reefs. "The main reason that...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A new children's book is designed to get kids interested in saving dugongs from multiple threats, including coastal development, climate change and environmental pollution. Dr. Mariana Fuentes, a marine biologist, wrote a book intended to take readers into the secret world of "Dhyum," which is a real dugong living in the Torres Strait. In "Dhyum the Dugong", the author takes the reader on a journey through the dugong's life, from...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online John Pandolfi, along with 81 nations and 500 million people, keep hopeful that the world’s coral reefs are not in a lot of trouble. The world-famous coral scientist, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and University of Queensland, has traced the story of the world’s reefs over more than 50 million years and is translating delicate signals from the past to reveal what doomed them in previous extinctions....
World's largest network of marine protected areas includes massive fully protected marine reserve in Coral Sea WASHINGTON, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Australia is expected to announce an historic decision today to create the world's largest network of marine protected areas, including a massive fully protected marine reserve in the Coral Sea, a move hailed by the Pew Environment Group. The Coral Sea no-take marine reserve, known in Australia as a national park zone,...
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...
