WE have been led to believe that smashed coral is our fault – that when it is lying on the sea floor as untidy piles of grey it is because of catastrophic human-caused global warming. But just maybe coral bleaching and cyclones are natural, and not even increasing in extent.
I visited four reefs during my recent adventures off Bowen. One of these, the reef fringing Middle Island, has been very badly damaged by cyclone Debbie, which hovered over Bowen in April 2017.
Jen getting ready to take more photographs, off Middle Island, 22 April 2019.
After gearing-up I jumped over-board from The Skipper's boat with my little red Olympus (TG-5) camera on Monday – and my new snorkelling buddy Matt.
Every time I stopped swimming, watched, and waited I saw something special swim past.
This green turtle swam past me, over all the broken grey corals at Middle Island reef, 22 April 2019.
There were also large, colourful parrot fish. But I didn't manage to capture them on this short video - my first attempt at underwater movie-making.
As I snorkeled sometimes the backdrop was broken coral. Other times I swam over meadows of algae. But I never had to swim far before seeing something special – like a mushroom or staghorn coral. They were often solitary: the very early stages of regeneration at an otherwise often ugly reef.
This mushroom coral (Fungia sp, family Cnidaria) was in a meadow of algae - alone at the Middle Island reef, on 22 April 2019.
A lonely Acropora, evidence of regeneration off Middle Island, 22 April 2019.
Occasionally I would stumble on an area of faster growing soft coral with sponges.
In some places soft corals and sponges are already growing back, off Middle Island on 22 April 2019.
That the cyclone had smashed large Porites coral clear in half gives some idea of how powerful it was.
A Porites coral smashed in half, most likely from the force of the waves pounding from the cyclonic winds two years ago off Middle Island when Cyclone Debbie struck.
But even delicate black feather corals are coming back … one at a time.
Black feather coral, growing alone on a hollowed out Porites - under the water off Middle Island, 22 April 2019.
********
The first/feature photo is of me (Jennifer Marohasy) getting ready to jump in, with a view across to the north eastern edge of Middle Island, off Bowen, on 22 April 2019; photo credit John Barnes.
The first link embedded into this post is from the Bureau's website suggesting a declining, certainly not increasing, trend in the incidence of cyclone. I've just downloaded this page and am archiving it here: TropicalCycloneTrends-20190424
Also, it should be noted, that the Bureau did overhype the category for Cyclone Marcia, as I detailed in an article for On Line Opinion, also archived here: CycloneMaricawasnotcategory5-Queenslanders . The Bureau were much more accurate when it came to reporting of Cyclone Debbie.
What a great job, lol
Thank you for the insightful updates
Back in 2017, the GBR Foundation published: “Bouncing back from extreme weather”
https://www.barrierreef.org/latest/news/bouncing-back-from-extreme-weather
“Cyclone Debbie is the tenth severe category cyclone to affect the Great Barrier Reef since 2005, sprinkled amongst plenty of other regular tropical cyclones as the Bureau of Meteorology’s cyclone history shows.
However, past experience has shown the resilience of the reef ecosystem in the face of these weather events according to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s Dr David Wachenfeld.
“We have generally seen in the past if you give a reef enough time it will bounce back,” Dr Wachenfeld said in an interview with The Australian newspaper…”
They cited Dr David Wachenfeld of the GBRMPA who in my view has not been noted for any lack of alarmism over the GBR.