Warm summer brings high bleach risk for Barrier Reef

Predictions of a long, hot summer may please many Australians, but it is not good news for one of the country’s top tourist attractions.
Satellite images show sea surface temperatures in the Coral Sea are already higher than average and the Bureau of Meteorology and the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have both forecast a high risk of coral bleaching.
Dr Russell Reichelt, the chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, says scientists are comparing this year’s summer to another devastating time for the world’s reefs.
“They’re likening the conditions that we’re looking at this summer now to be same as they were in 1998, when a very large global event occurred where 16 per cent of the world’s coral reefs died from coral bleaching,” he said.
[Source: ABC News]