NASA Helps Monitor Bleaching :Travel The Great Barrier Reef in Australia

NASA Helps Monitor Bleaching :Travel The Greatwhich account for 85% of the tourism in the region.
Barrier Reef in AustraliaPolicies on cruise ships, bareboat charters, and
From:anchorages limit the traffic on the Great Barrier Reef.
The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the world'sThe 2003 Pixar film, Finding Nemo, featured the
largest coral reef system, composed of roughlyGreat Barrier Reef as a setting.
3,000 individual reefs and 900 islands that stretch forLady Elliot Island is the southern-most coral cay of
2,600 kilometres (1,616 mi) and cover an area ofthe Great Barrier Reef, Australia. The island lies 85
approximately 344,400 square kilometres (132,974 sqkilometres north-east of Bundaberg and covers an
mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off thearea of approximately 40 hectares. The island is
coast of Queensland in northeast Australia.home to a small resort and airstrip, which is serviced
The Great Barrier Reef can be seen from outerdaily by flights from Gladstone, 1770, Bundaberg,
space and is the world's biggest single structureHervey Bay, Maroochydore, Brisbane and the Gold
made by living organisms. This reef structure isCoast. Visitors to the resort can stay in a variety of
composed of and built by billions of tiny organisms,accommodation, from suites to tent cabins. Activities
known as coral polyps. The Great Barrier Reefon the island include reef walking, scuba diving,
supports a wide diversity of life and was selected assnorkelling and bird, turtle and whale watching. The
a World Heritage Site in 1981. CNN has labelled it oneisland is particularly renowned for its scuba diving and
of the seven natural wonders of the world. Thesnorkelling, as its location far offshore at the
Queensland National Trust has named it a state iconsouthern end of the Great Barrier Reef results in
of Queensland.unrivalled water clarity.
A large part of the reef is protected by the GreatLady Elliot Island is one of only six island resorts on
Barrier Reef Marine Park, which helps to limit thethe Great Barrier Reef, and one of only three with
impact of human use, such as overfishing anddirect flight access to the island airstrip. The island is
tourism. Other environmental pressures to the reeflocated within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in
and its ecosystem include water quality from runoff,the highest possible classification of Marine National
climate change accompanied by mass coral bleaching,Park Zone as designated by the Great Barrier Reef
and cyclic outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish.Marine Park Authority. Lady Elliot is an island teeming
Due to its vast biodiversity, warm clear waters andwith life and live corals, famous for a resident
its accessibility from the floating guest facilities calledpopulation of 40 manta rays which form the iconic
'live aboards', the reef is a very popular destinationlogo of the island's resort.
for tourists, especially scuba divers. Many cities alongNASA satellites that monitor ocean color and
the Queensland coast offer daily boat trips to thetemperature have joined a global effort to study the
reef. Several continental and coral cay islands haveworrisome bleaching of coral in Australia's Great
been turned into resorts, including the pristine resortBarrier Reef, the U.S. space agency said Wednesday.
island of Lady Elliot Island.Coral reefs get bleached when water is too warm,
As the largest commercial activity in the region, itwhich forces out tiny algae that live in the coral and
was estimated in 2003 that tourism in the Greathelp it to thrive and give it its vivid color, NASA said
Barrier Reef generates over AU$4 billion annually. (Ain a statement. Without these algae, coral can whiten
2005 estimate puts the figure at AU$5.1 billion.)and eventually die.
Approximately two million people visit the Great"Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the largest and most
Barrier Reef each year. Although most of these visitscomplex system of reefs in the world, and like so
are managed in partnership with the marine tourismmany of the coral reefs in the world's oceans, it's in
industry, there are some very popular areas neartrouble," said oceanographer Gene Carl Feldman of
shore (such as Green Island) that have sufferedNASA's Goddard Space Flight Center outside
damage due to overfishing and land based run off.Washington.
A variety of boat tours and cruises are offered,NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites offer data about
from single day trips, to longer voyages. Boat sizesocean surface temperature and color, available online
range from dinghies to superyachts. Glass-bottomedwithin three hours of the satellites' pass. Color is
boats and underwater observatories are also popular,linked to the concentration of chlorophyll in ocean
as are helicopter flights. By far, the most popularplants, and shows changes in the ocean's biological
tourist activities on the Great Barrier Reef areproductivity.
snorkelling and diving, for which pontoons are oftenResearcher Scarla Weeks at the University of
used, and the area is often enclosed by nets. TheQueensland, Australia, use the satellite data to
outer part of the Great Barrier Reef is favoured forobserve changes in sea surface temperatures and
such activities, due to water quality.ocean primary productivity along the Great Barrier
Management of tourism in the Great Barrier Reef isReef and surrounding waters.
geared towards making tourism ecologically"The Great Barrier Reef is an icon, and we just want
sustainable. A daily fee is levied that goes towardsto know what we can do to save it," said Weeks in
research of the Great Barrier Reef. This fee ends upthe statement. "Sea surface temperatures over the
being 20% of the GBRMPA's income. Plans oflast five months are actually higher in certain locations
management are also in place for the popular touristnow than they were in 2002 when we witnessed the
destinations of Cairns and the Whitsunday Islands,worst bleaching incident to date.