"It is all over the news, right across the world: the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching – again. Children can’t sleep at night: it is not only the war in the Ukraine keeping them awake at night, but also our apparent disregard for nature.
On 10th April 2022 I went to the very epicentre of the claimed latest severe mass coral bleaching, and found a coral wonderland. There was some bleaching, especially around the perimeter of John Brewer Reef – on the sandy sea floor where the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) surveyed and concluded coral cover is never more than 30% – but most of John Brewer Reef is still covered in more than 80% colourful corals. This high percentage is denied by AIMS because they never survey the reef crest.
This coral reef, John Brewer Reef, has been described as one of the worst bleached by the ABC, The Conversation, and The Guardian. The Guardian uses the same photographs as the ABC which have been sourced from environmental group the WWF.
At John Brewer Reef just yesterday, I swam over the top – over the reef crest – and I also swam along the walls that drop down to the sandy sea floor. My buddy swam in front of me between the walls of coral at John Brewer Reef on 10th April 2022.
I will show you some of the snap shots that I took with my Olympus TG6, no lights. I also swam around the sandy perimeter, and I will show you these photographs in my next blog post – that will be Part 2 of this series.
John Brewer Reef is 70 kms (38 nautical miles) east of Townsville, part of the central region of the Great Barrier Reef. Rising from the sandy sea floor are two huge flat-topped blocks of consolidated limestone that represent layer upon layer of dead coral (that you can’t see) with a topping (that you can see) of colourful plates and so many tiny fish. Running between these two reefs is a deep canyon with walls of more coral and more fish.
Most of the corals were very healthy with lots of chocolate brown zooxanthellae, but you can see a bleached coral in the distance that is very white. While most of the corals at the reef crest were healthy, there were some corals that were bleaching white and others were bleaching colourful.
The pink to purple coloration in some of the corals at the reef crest is not from zooxanthellae, which are the symbiotic algae, but rather from increased pigment accumulation from the coral itself as the zooxanthellae are expelled. Zooxanthellae are expelled when the coral becomes stressed from water that is a bit too hot or a bit too cold. These colourful corals are often described as fluorescing.
This plate coral has bleached and is fluorescing. ... The coral colony will likely recover. According to the technical literature, some corals florescence/go this pink colour within 2 to 3 weeks of exposure to unusually warm temperatures. More usually this coral would be a deep chocolate brown.
The corals at the reef crest at John Brewer Reef that are bleaching colourful / fluorescing are likely to make a full recovery."
Seven 2022 JM photographs follow, enhanced for clarity by Ye Editor:
"Leonard Lim’s Exquisite 2020 Photography of John Brewer Reef
"The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have been tasked with reporting on the state of the corals and coral cover. They surveyed John Brewer Reef in March, made no mention of any coral bleaching in their report, and stated coral cover to be just 21.8%. There are no photographs.
AIMS have large ships to survey the corals but they don’t employ professional underwater photographers who might show us the true state of the corals including at the reef crest where coral cover is often more than 80%.
Underwater photographer Leonard Lim visited this same coral reef a month later and his extraordinary underwater photographs show a coral wonderland with more than 100% coral cover across much of the reef crest that extends for nearly 5 kms. At the reef crest a great diversity of different corals compete for light – often growing one over another. It would be absurd to suggest there was only 21.8% coral cover here.
Eight LL 2020 photographs follow, enhanced for clarity by Ye Editor:
