Scientists find bleaching in Great Barrier Reef’s far north

STORY: Lead researcher Maya Srinivasan said the discovery around the islands in the Turtle Group National Park was “devastating”, but added that the corals seen were still at a stage “where they could still recover as long as the water temperatures decline in time basically”.The six islands in the Turtle Group were new additions to a monitoring program being conducted by James Cook University in the barrier reef and the data collected from here would help further analyse how corals are affected by bleaching, cyclones and floods, Srinivasan said.Bleaching is triggered by warmer ocean waters, which cause corals to expel the colourful algae living in their tissues and turn white. A bleached coral can recover if waters cool but if ocean temperatures remain high for longer periods, it will die.The Great Barrier Reef has seen five mass bleaching events in eight years, which experts have tied to climate change.