The survey the researchers gave to 235 tourists in Port Douglas, Cairns, and Airlie Beach gave 15 suggested reasons for visiting the reef, including “to see the reef before it is gone”, “to discover new places and things”, and “to get away from the demands of everyday life”.
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Scientists working on the reef.
Nearly half of the reef’s coral has vanished over the past three decades, thanks to warming ocean temperatures, invasive species and coastal development. CORAL will generate a uniform data set for a large sample of reefs across the Pacific Ocean.
This year, the reef suffered the worst coral bleaching in recorded history.
David Wachenfeld, director of reef recovery at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said due to the magnitude of this year’s bleaching, “We’re going to have to wait for at least five years before we understand how much recovery or not is happening on those reefs that were badly affected”.
In Australia, CORAL will survey six discrete sections across the length of the Great Barrier Reef, from the Capricorn-Bunker Group in the south to Torres Strait in the north. Literally gazing through the surface of the ocean, PRISM will create high-resolution images of light reflected in certain electromagnetic spectrum regions relevant to coral reef research. Scientists from the University of Queensland in Brisbane and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will assist NASA’s team in their investigation by carrying out complementary in-water validation activities.
According to Eric Hochberg, principal CORAL investigator, the mission provides the clearest and most extensive image so far of the condition of a significant portion of coral reefs around the world. It is more than 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) long and covers an area of about 133,000 square miles (344,400 square kilometers).
“From 28,000 feet we can see the whole reef, we’re can see the entire ecosystem in one picture instead of looking at bits of it and trying to piece it together”.
More than four million people travel each year to the Great Barrier Reef. However, the reef faces environmental pressures from various human and climate change impacts.
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“The greater the value of Great Barrier Reef tourism, the easier it is to justify government investment in reef management”, said reef scientist Peter Mumby.
