Great Barrier Reef experiencing ‘record high’ levels of coral coverage

well uh this won't come as a surprise to you but tell us about the report and the claims that the reef is in a recovery window after a decade of disturbance yes i love the phrase a recovery window this uh this is data that's been accumulated over a little while now and uh it shows actually they don't they don't actually show a graph showing this but it's actually a record high coral cover we've got more coral on the great barriers now than we did when records began in 1985. we've got twice as much coral as we had after huge cyclones went through the reef in about 2011 and 12. and this record high coral cover is despite supposedly having three catastrophic unprecedented bleaching events in just the last five years so you just gotta wonder were those bleaching events uh maybe as catastrophic as as these experts supposedly claimed and has there been just a little bit of exaggeration over the last actually 50 years because these claims of the death of the great barrier if you can read newspaper articles going back to the 1960s and 70s saying the reef is dying from crownathorn starfish or whatever well peter here's your graph we'll put it up of the record high coral growth since uh 1985. so i'll put that up um but do you think they're kind of a little bit reluctant to tell us the good news reading that report or are they kind of astonished what do you think it is well yeah they certainly a bit reluctant i mean it's excellent day for and aims need to be congratulated for doing this work over the last 35 years but they make an excuse you see they say oh we're yes we are at record well they don't actually say record high coral cover but we are um but it's only because the fast growing corals the plate and the star the staghorn corals have got going this is why we're at this high state but of course when we're at our record low in the 2012 they forgot to say well actually it's just the fast growing corals that get killed by cyclones and they're also the ones that bleach and they're the ones that get hit by crown of the starfish so when we got the record lows they were saying oh well if we're going up this rate there'll be no coral left by 2025 or whatever date they pulled out so there's a degree of inconsistency and it's yet another example where environmental science organizations have just been exaggerating and being alarmist is sort of a bit of a resonance with the previous segment uh this seems to be a very common theme amongst the so-called expert organizations can you really rely on them it's a very great shame but in the case of environmental organizations generally i don't think you can rita well you've been vindicated hallelujah um and i'm seeing all those in the international outlets new york po new york place new york times washington post cnn who were covering the decline of the reefer suddenly not covering this latest data that's come out but i want to ask you about this plan of transplanting coral at the great barrier reef to [Music] help it grow take us through that strategy why are they doing that is it effective yeah this is one of many examples where you sort of get the impression that maybe the scientists are starting to lose sense of reality actually corals they're planting corals on the reef supposedly to savor it from climate change and all the rest but look the reef is the size of victoria it's bigger than germany and there's no way you go if the reef is going to die it's going to die you're not going to just be able to plant an area that size and of course it ignores the fact there are literally trillions of floating larvae that get produced every year and you know i used to do a lot of work on the re-putting instrumentation you know instruments and various things out on the reef and you found if you leave something out for more than a year or two it just starts growing coral you can't stop it growing up and they're kidding themselves thinking they're going to transplant the reef it just really you really do worry about their whether anybody's actually hauling them into line and saying is this practical does this make any sense whatsoever and there are many other examples of that well i love that i was going to say peter loved the one you talked about instruments but instruments of a different kind apparently they're playing music under the water to make the healthy sounds of a healthy reef so it's not music but it's the sounds of a healthy reef underwater kind of stuff to make the fish think that the reef is healthier than it is or something i mean these people are crackers aren't they well they're certainly playing sounds and the idea is that these corals they've planted they want to be able to track fish that are swimming around the reef remember a reef is about a kilometer or three in size and waters around it there's all these little fish that home in on the reef on the sounds and supposedly they're going to well you can just imagine it this reef is going to have to be wired up with thousands of speakers to attract these poor little swimming fish and these fish are going to hear this sound and they're going to swim towards this reef and what are they going to find not a healthy reef they're going to find a speaker you've got to wonder but has the rspca being told about it is this ethical james quickly before we wrap and i mean what what are they going to be playing for them is it jimmy buffett is going to be a part of music they're going to say come on down have a margarita and won't those speakers in two years get covered up by coral and stop working anyway well precisely it has not music they make the sound of shrimps and various other things that recent noisy places but you're right these coral these speakers and all this equipment will look like a lump of coral in about probably three to four years you won't even get to see the speaker there'll be so much biological growth on it peter ryd always great to chat to you and as rita pointed out you have been thoroughly vindicated by this latest report if only the world's media would pick up on it and congratulate you on your work and also recognize the reality of the healthiness of the great barrier reef peter ridd thanks so much for coming on outsiders thank you

Channel: Sky News Australia

Views: 104,949

Rating: 4.9509287 out of 5

Keywords: 6274237674001, fb, msn, opinion, outsiders, science, yt

Id: znOidiyUnq8

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/lmea14]

Wasn’t this going to disappear in 10 years or something?

[u/AllScienceMatters]

Predictions to the end of the GBR go back literally centuries.

Alarmists won't recognize this because their funding requires them to ignore it.

[u/Tyler119]

Re posted this to the Collapse sub. removed within 30 mins due to breaking the rule of "climate science denial".

[u/NovelChemist9439]

Oh no! Record coral reefs indicate unstoppable and unforeseen climate crisis, Extinction Rebellion, and Greta!! Will the NGOs lose their funding?

[u/roylennigan]

shit source, here's a better:

https://www.aims.gov.au/reef-monitoring/gbr-condition-summary-2020-2021