26 May 2008 - G’day,
my name is Tony Fontes. I live in Airlie
Beach (Whitsundays), Queensland,
Australia. Airlie Beach is a small seaside
community located right in the heart of
the Great Barrier Reef. Needless to say,
tourism is the main industry of the region.
I am a PADI dive instructor specialising
in the training of the higher levels of
recreational diving such as Divemasters
and Instructors.
30 years of diving
I have lived and worked
as a dive instructor in the Whitsundays
for 30 years. Much of my time is spent underwater
on training dives, Marine Park volunteer
dives or pleasure dives. Many of the training
dives involve teaching other divers how
to best observe the marine environment.
Many of the volunteer dives involve collecting
information regarding the health of the
marine environment. I generally dive many
of the same sites over and over again. Through
personal observations as well as observations
by other local divers I have noted changes
to the environment that are most likely
climate induced.
Coral bleaching used
to be rare
The most notable change
has been the increase in coral bleaching
each year during the summer months. In the
early 1980’s bleaching was a non-event,
rarely, if ever, noted. By the mid-11000’s,
bleaching was seen regularly each summer
by myself as well as other divers. It is
pretty amazing to see a large patch of bleached
coral. Bright white or light pastels, actually
quite beautiful compared to the normal greens
and browns of most corals. The late 11000s
and early 2000 brought the largest bleaching
events on record. In many cases, you could
see the bleached corals from the air. Unlike
earlier events, these large bleaching events
resulted in significant amounts of coral
mortality, the bright white soon covered
in brown algae. This has also led to a noticeable
decrease in the diversity of life on these
reefs.
I have also noticed
a change in weather over the past 30 years.
Although not consistent, the wet seasons
have gotten less wet. In fact, for the first
time in memory, we had water restrictions
in place for all of 2006 and 2007. Cyclones
along our coastline are fewer but perhaps
a bit more intense.
Impact on the tourism
and dive industry
Many popular dive/snorkel
sites lost their lustre due to the coral
bleaching. The reefs need up to 10 years
to fully recover. However, with more bleaching
events occurring each year, one wonders
if the reefs will ever recover. Without
the postcard reef scenes, many visitors
are disappointed in their reef experience
and are not likely to return. This is tough
on a town that depends on tourism.
Extreme weather is more
intense
Fewer but more intense
summer weather patterns tend to make people
complacent when it comes to preparing for
the cyclone season. This year we had an
overnight squall that sunk or severely damaged
28 boats moored off Airlie Beach. Likewise,
heavy summer rains caught developers off
guard with many sites having no erosion
controls in place. The slogan for the Whitsunday
region is “74 Islands Out of the Blue”.
But this year a more appropriate slogan
would have been “74 Islands Out of the Brown”.
The coastal waters were brown with mud for
nearly 4 weeks after the wet season ended.
Take action
From my personal experience,
I can see that climate change, in particular
global warming, is already having a significant
and destructive impact on the Great Barrier
Reef. Looking at the big picture, as a global
community, we need to reduce our CO2 emissions
now…not tomorrow, but now!
If the coral reefs of
the world are to survive, we cannot afford
the predicted 2-3 degree increase in ocean
temperature. But we also need to look at
the more local picture and work to reduce
all impacts on the Great Barrier Reef. This
would include improving the water quality
of the reef. I feel that Australia needs
to lead the way. After all, we have as much
to lose as any country. Perhaps more.
It is going to be hard
to explain to our kids how we lost the Great
Barrier Reef.
Tony is a governor with
Project AWARE, a nonprofit environmental
organisation that encourages divers to take
action and protect the environment by taking
part in underwater cleanups, coral monitoring
or fish surveys. He is also a member of
the OUCH Volunteers (Order of Underwater
Coral Heroes). As an OUCH Volunteer and
Project AWARE Governor, he works alongside
the Marine Parks on various reef conservation
projects.
Scientific review
Reviewed by: Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,
Professor and Director, Centre for Marine
Studies, University of Queensland, Australia
Unfortunately, the observations
that Tony has made are all too consistent
with the scientific studies that have and
are documenting large-scale environmental
change in the Great Barrier Reef area. The
Whitsunday Islands a beautiful region of
the Great Barrier Reef but have undergone
significant changes in the past few decades
due to the increase in sea temperatures
(driving coral bleaching) and due to a combination
of agricultural activities in the Pioneer
River and changes to rainfall and storm
intensity, and consequently water quality
along the Queensland coastline. The combination
of these two stresses, one global and the
other local, have meant that corals in the
region have begun to slowly disappear.
Corals, being at the
heart of the ecosystem and building the
habitat for thousands of other organisms,
a crucial to coral reefs. Tony is right
in that we need to take action on global
climate change (rapidly reduce emissions).
We also need to investigate how we are using
land within the catchments of the rivers
that flow into the waters of the Great Barrier
Reef. As the climate along the east coast
of Australia continues to dry (and big storms
like cyclones become episodic and more torrential),
we need to ensure that we have maximised
the ability of these catchments to retain
soil and nutrients. This will take the restoration
of forests along the creek and river beds,
as well as encouraging farmers to take action
on erosion and their land practices. This
is both good for the land but is critical
for the future of coastal coral reefs within
the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.
All articles are subject
to scientific review by a member of the
Climate Witness Science Advisory Panel.
+ More
G8 fail to boost climate
negotiations, Hokkaido summit in July at
risk – WWF
26 May 2008 - Kobe,
Japan: G8 environment ministers meeting
in Kobe missed a big opportunity to take
sufficient action against climate change,
the conservation organization WWF said today.
The Japanese G8 presidency failed to pave
the way for a positive outcome to talks
on climate change at the Hokkaido Summit
in July.
"Kobe gave ministers
the opportunity to accelerate the slow progress
of G8 climate negotiations, but they failed
to send a signal of hope for a breakthrough
in Hokkaido in July", said Naoyuki
Yamagishi, Head of the Climate Change Programme
at WWF Japan. He described the chair of
the meeting's summary of the Kobe Initiative
as incomprehensible, saying its language
was far too vague to show real G8 leadership.
"At the 2007 summit
in Heiligendamm the G8 seriously considered
cutting global emissions by 50 per cent
by 2050, now they have expressed their political
will to go beyond this, but we still don't
see binding targets for industrialized countries
being endorsed, not to mention sufficient
measures to reach such targets", he
said. "The G8 are facing a credibility
problem, urging emerging economies to make
commitments, while failing to make their
own pledges, or to deliver on what they
promise."
In Kobe, representatives
from emerging economies and European Union
governments had urged hesitant G8 nations
like Canada, Japan and the United States
to show that they are serious about tackling
climate change by agreeing to mid-term emission
reduction targets of 25 to 40 per cent by
2020. However, the chair's closing remarks
fail to specify and endorse such targets.
"Ambitious mid-term
targets would force governments to take
action as urgently as needed, while long-term
targets only are an invitation to get lost
in tactics and power games", said Yamagishi.
"Without industrialized nations taking
on a package of mandatory mid-term and long-term
targets, the chances to deliver on the Bali
Roadmap and craft a new global climate deal
by 2009 are low."
Addressing Japan's proposed
sectoral approach to defining emission reduction
targets, participants emphasized that targets
should be defined top-down and based on
what is needed to stop global warming, rather
than bottom-up and based on what companies
are willing to do.
WWF welcomes the Japanese
move to acknowledge the need of bridging
the gap between its own bottom-up approach
and the top-down approach preferred by many
other nations.
Mr Christian Teriete, WWF International
Communications Manager Asia Pacific,
