The authors of this report have certainly been drinking the Kool-Aid. Apparently,someone believes that the “outstanding universal value of the reef remains intact across all four natural World Heritage criteria for which it was inscribed on the World Heritage List.” Conveniently,the actual criteria do not appear in the report.
The report is full of upbeat assertions about coral recovery over the past two years (much of which has been in a cooler La Nina period).
Buried in the appendix,one finds that most of the so-called recovery has been of just a single genus of coral,Acropora,the “fast to grow,first to go” coral that will be particularly vulnerable to the next marine heatwave. Recent reports of bleaching seen on reefs off Port Douglas indicate we might not have to wait too long for this to happen.
The report contains very few numbers and no maps of the damage wrought by the three bleaching events in the past six years. Indeed,even the word “bleaching” is used sparingly,frequently replaced by a much vaguer “disturbance”.
The truth is,our reef is in very serious trouble. It is utterly disingenuous and irresponsible to spin it as anything else.