Not Again

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This does bother me but what bothers me more is any article I find not one gives any numbers for water temp they just all say the general statement " because of increasing water temps. " but they will go on and on about the Global warming and the 2 degree mark and give all kinds of info, but not one says at time of photo the water temp was ----. I don't know if there is any connection to what is happening but the Sun is at it least active state since 1745. It has been called " The Cue Ball Sun " as no marks, no sun spots, no flares, its just there. Could there be something missing in the Solar energy that is causing some of this, something lacking in the Light Spectrum or some lack in the UV light or even and increase in the Infrared. Who knows but it is a shame. Even when talking with Walt Smith via email he did say they where getting Bleaching every year.

Great Barrier Reef Hit by Worst Coral Die-Off on Record, Scientists Say


By MICHELLE INNISNOV. 29, 2016

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• climate change, water pollution and the effects of coastal development were all detrimental.
  
  “The government has a staunch commitment to conserving this amazing natural asset,” Mr. Frydenberg said in a written statement on Friday.
  
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  Healthy coral, left, in the Capricorn Group of Islands, a part of the southern Great Barrier Reef. Dead table corals, right, killed by bleaching on Zenith Reef, a part of the north. CreditARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
  Some scientists and environmental advocates have criticized the government’s efforts to protect the reef, saying they have fallen far short. They have also pointed to a seeming contradiction in the wishes of the Queensland government to protect the reef even as it pushes ahead with plans to develop the Carmichael coal mine, the country’s biggest, which lies less than 200 miles inland in the Galilee Basin.
  
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  “Spending $45 million to improve water quality on the reef is like putting a Band-Aid on a person who has cancer,” said William Steffen, a climate scientist at the Australian National University College of Medicine, Biology and Environment.
  
  As custodian of the reef, the government has an obligation to manage one of the world’s greatest natural wonders, Dr. Steffen said. “It is nonsense to think we can open up a new coal mine and think we are going to save coral reefs.”
  
  This month, Australia ratified the Paris climate agreement to limit pollution to stop the Earth’s warming by more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, or 2.7 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
  
  Environmentalists have unsuccessfully tried to block the development of the enormous mine. Other countries have pledged to reduce the use of fossil fuels, which contribute to global warming. Burning coal is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions.
  
  Coral in the north was “cooked” as water temperatures rose about two degrees, Professor Hughes of James Cook University said. “That coral did not bleach and die slowly.”
  
  Coral in slightly cooler waters bleached more slowly, expelling the tiny algae that give it its color. If the water then cooled quickly enough, the algae returned to recolonize the coral, which recovered.
  
  Cyclone Winston, which passed over Fiji in late February before dissipating as it hit the coast of Queensland, brought a change in water temperatures that helped preserve the coral at the south end of the reef.
  
  Mr. Frydenberg said Friday that about 22 percent of the entire reef’s coral had died after the bleaching event. But he added that coral cover had increased around 19 percent in the years leading up to it, a figure that Professor Hughes disputes.
  
  “The Great Barrier Reef is very resilient and quite strong,” Mr. Frydenberg said in an email on Tuesday. “The Australian and Queensland governments have a Reef 2050 plan, which will see $2 billion invested over the next decade in order to improve the health of the reef.”
  
  Greg Torda, a coral researcher at James Cook University, said the biodiversity of the reef had been severely compromised in some regions because flat, or tabletop, and branching corals had died. These corals provide structure for small fish to hide from predators. “Bigger boulder corals, some hundreds of years old, provide light and shade for fish in reef habitats,” Dr. Torda said. “Reefs are structurally very complex, and all shapes on the reef provide important diversity.”
  
  Reefs that are damaged tend to flatten out, losing habitat and then species diversity over decades. “We will have a reef in 30 years’ time, but the species along the reef are already shifting,” Professor Hughes said. “And we are already seeing less diversity.”