Scientists surprised that reef that survived the hotter holocene is already recovering from 2016 bleaching
By Paul Homewood
Jo Nova has the story of how the Great Barrier Reef is recovering surprisingly fast. (Well, not so surprising to those of us who pointed out the reality a few months ago!)
The ABC reports today that the Great Barrier Reef is recovering “surprisingly” fast.
Optimism is rising among scientists that parts of the Great Barrier Reef that were severely bleached over the past two years are making a recovery.
Scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science this month surveyed 14 coral reefs between Cairns and Townsville to see how they fared after being bleached.
The institute’s Neil Cantin said they were surprised to find the coral had already started to reproduce.
Who would have thought that after 5,000 years of climate change, sea level change, temperature change and super-storms every 200 years — that the Great Barrier Reef would have something left up its sleeve?
Much of the ABC reporting on the Great Barrier Reef damage uses vague terms. If I was feeling cruel, I might call them “weasel words”:
Nearly two thirds of the Great Barrier Reef was affected by bleaching in 2016 and 2017, killing up to 50 per cent of coral in those parts.
So which parts are “those parts”? Did 50% of the corals die in two-thirds of the reef? Or has two thirds of the reef been affected by a small amount of bleaching while a much smaller number of reefs were hit by the apocalyptic 50% death-rate? There must be a better way to describe the damage. As it is, it is a number mush. (If only the ABC had a dedicated science unit they would be able to make sense of difficult concepts like this.) 
“What it means is the corals along the entire Great Barrier Reef, are survivors that are going to reproduce earlier than expected which could help drive quicker recovery if we don’t see another heat stress this summer,” he said.
“This is a positive news story for a change for the Great Barrier Reef. We’re seeing eggs and we hope those eggs will lead to somewhat of a successful spawning season this summer.”
When climate-sameness would be remarkable…
The Barrier Reef survived the Holocene peak for hundreds of years, so we might assume that the reef has ways to deal with hotter conditions and changing temperatures. Sea levels in Queensland were 1 – 2 meters higher 5,000 years ago. (Lewis 2012) Super cyclones have been hitting the coast of Queensland for the last 5,000 years and there is no sign that storms are getting worse. (see Nott 2001 and Hayne 2001.)
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
And the, ere, what’s it called,…….
HOLIDAY??
Give the good lady Homewood some time, we don’t deserve it.
:
I think “strewth” is the only word for it!
Isn’t there some mental ailment that manifests itself by the subject agreeing that what you say is correct, agreeing that the arguments you put forward are substantively accurate but then immediately going away and behaving as if the discussion had never even taken place?
How long before these people finally accept that coral bleaching is natural, that it is not a manifestation of AGW, that it is not the end of the world as we know it, and it will quickly sort itself out?
Like it always has done.
Sooner or later they must surely realise they are simply wrong!
People (not just Alarmists) will continue to believe in what they believe in, even when every single piece of evidence proves them wrong.
In a letter to NATURE in 1993 (vol. 365, pp. 836-838), Gleason and Wellington explained clearly from field experiments that the cause of reef coral bleaching was clear sky, calm sea UV radiation, irrespective of temperature. The recent “worrisome” bleaching on the GBR occurred when sea surface temperatures were no warmer than normal. Add in human pollutions and degradation and the “global warming” scenario becomes laughable. Expecting the alarmists to see this? Not likely.
What else do you expect from “scientists” with preconceived ideas. Oh this can’t be true, change the data to fit the hypothesis, fixed!
Coral around Cuba, at Bikini atoll and in the areas protected, Coral is in pristine condition-
There is a clue in there if you search for the reasons.
Could it be that the scientists are part of the Fake News Bears, preaching lies to prop up the demise of the world through Climate Change or Global warming? No, they’re so honest and of high moral character that something like that would never occur to them. (Sarcasm of Course)(
Do these ‘scientists’ where an expression of permanent surprise as everything they predicts fails to happen?
The biggest problem for warmists when it comes to corals are two fold.
1. Lack of knowledge — there is no long term studies of corals, so anything unusual that happens with them is flagged up as ‘unprecedented’. Bottom line is we do not know if anything that happens with coral in the short term is ‘unprecedented’ or not.
What was the state of corals during other climatically warm periods, say three to four hundred years ago before the LIA, or during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP)? Just an unknown, though some core drilling of old coral has, and is, being done to research this, though it should be noted we have very little idea what is the life cycle of a coral reef.
2. The warmists behave like corals are somehow very fragile.
It is known that corals die when certain chemicals from suncreams get on them, and that high nitrogen pollution badly affects them (http://www.reefresilience.org/coral-reefs/stressors/local-stressors/pollution/ [with thanks to ‘oldbrew’ for this link] but they have been around for millions of years and so have already survived huge changes in climate.
Also of note is the corals around Bikini Atoll that have survived being blasted by an H-bomb. (see http://www.bikiniatoll.com/BIKINICORALS.pdf for more information)
Fragile? Perhaps not.