During the bushfires that devastated so much of southeast Australia, before the pandemic that stopped all the travel, I had the opportunity to spend a whole week on a boat traversing the northeast edge of Australia’s continental shelf – about 60 kms from the mainland. We dived the Ribbon reefs which grow as underwater cliff faces along the continental shelf. They are the true barrier reefs defining the outside edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
The waters were so warm, the corals so colourful, and the fish not at all frightened of me. In fact, as you will see in our short film – what I am calling the ‘official preview’ for a planned longer documentary – a giant cod fish looked me in the eye, and more than once! He came back to me, again and again. We swam together. It was magical.
Our short preview film has just been uploaded to a new page at the Institute of Public Affairs’ website:
For me, the Ribbons at the Great Barrier Reef, are the most special and awe-inspiring place on this planet. I was so privileged to dive them with Emmy Award winning underwater photographer Clint Hempsall in January 2020.
The cinematography by Clint, is so special and you can enjoy it all in our official preview for ‘Clowns at the Ribbon’s Edge’! It will only take 12 minutes of your time. Come under-the-sea with me and meet the cod. The short film has been set to music all composed by a local hero and Noosa guitarist Mungo Coats.
Corals come in so many different colours and intricate forms. It is the hard corals that create reefs, and reefs are spectacular, beautiful structures. They are home to so many different creatures not just giant fish, but also sea anemones, sharks and sea snakes. The Great Barrier Reef as one ecosystem, comprises nearly 3000 individual reefs stretching for 2000 kilometres. It is visible from outer space. Damaged areas can always be found somewhere because a coral reef that is mature and spectacular today, may be smashed by a cyclone tomorrow.
Just beyond the sheltered side of Ribbon No. 10 is the dive site known as Goggle Gardens. The corals there are at 15 metres and were totally bleached white from March to October 2016. But they didn’t die. What I learnt at the Ribbons in January is that white and bleached coral is not necessarily dead coral.
The zooxanthellae — unicellular algae that give coral its colours and normally feeds it with energy from the sun via photosynthesis — were expelled in early 2016 as these corals bleached, as the corals were stressed by the exceptionally warm waters during the summer of 2015 – 2016. But by January 2020, when we visited, these corals had fully recovered.
Many of the media headlines that give the impression the Great Barrier Reef is a ruin are based on aerial surveys by one man – the same Terry Hughes who incorrectly claimed the inshore reefs off-Bowen are now mud-flat. Paid not by an oil company, but rather the long suffering Australian taxpayer through generous research grants, he gets to sit in a light aircraft and fly over the Ribbons at about 300 metres altitude every four years and determine they are badly bleached. Back in 2016, he claimed 60 percent bleached, and the impression from the newspaper headlines that ricocheted around the world was that this was irretrievable, that the Great Barrier Reef was ruined.
Hughes is a myth maker. The Great Barrier Reef is still beautiful and the Ribbons on its most northeast edge are still of colourful corals and curious fish.
I went to the Ribbons because I was told these had been badly bleached. I went in search of death, but instead we found so much life as I explain in my second short film, the official preview to what will be ‘Clowns on the Ribbon’s Edge’.
My work is funded through philanthropy. I am grateful for the continued support of the B. Macfie Family Foundation through the Institute of Public Affairs. We do not rely on the long-suffering Australian tax payer for any of our research.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
Bloody amazing stuff; thanks Jennifer.
I’ve sent the video to all my friends so that some of them no longer have to worry about Obama’s concerns of a dying GBR.
Thanks Jennifer, absolutely stunning. Looking forward to visiting one day.
Can you get these films on to the internet such as You-Tube and other media platforms so that the wider public can get some truth about the state of the Great Barrier Reef.
Thanks Jennifer from some one who won’t jump out of a boat and join the food chain. Truly wonderful, keep doing real science.
So, sportsfans – who we gonna believe?
Tezza (“Biggles”) Hughes,
or our own lyin’ eyes?
I’m a tough cookie. I rarely cry. You made me cry today (little gentle tears of relief). God bless you Jen. I loved every minute. This creation is magnificent.
Your productivity and creativity are only matched by your integrity.
Thank you and keep up the excellent work.
Thanks Jen, that is the best thing I have seen this year. Superb. The rhythm is almost waltz-like. Natural Choreography? The pas de deux with the cod is priceless.
I am constantly having to tell contacts back in the old country that what they are hearing about the GBR is nonsense.
Let us know when the full versions are available. I reckon copies should be sent to their Honours the Justices of the High Court for when they hear Peter’s appeal.
There is just so much garbage pushed by those dependent on the Great Barrier Reef disaster story for their living, it would be unbelievable if we had not already seen it in the Global Warming scam.
In 1985 I took the entire board, & many of the senior researchers from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, & some of their families, about 150 people, on a freebee, to our facility at Hardy reef, out from the Whitsundays. The area was not part of the park, but was soon to be gazetted.
I was surprised by the lack of knowledge of the reef displayed by many involved. One senior researcher appeared to delight in telling me we would be out of business with in a year. He said the crown of thorns would have stripped our area of coral with in a year.
When I told him that neither of the 2 dive schools that used us for transport for their dive groups, or my skipper who lived out there had seen more than a couple of the star fish, he told me “obviously my people did not know what the star fish looked like”.
After that day, my opinion of the GBRMPA people was very low, & nothing since has given me any reason to change that opinion.
Keep up the good work Jen, we need people like you putting in the effort to tell the true story.
Hasbeen, all of us who have seen a fair bit of life know that the only way anyone gets to work for “Authorities” is to be a card-carrying soldier committed to promoting the ‘manifesto’
By the way, I snorkeled your Hardy Reef facility on a “goldilocks” day back in the ’80s – smooth seas, 100 ft visibility, comfortable water temp. Frustrated that I could only dive to about 30 ft, but could clearly see the bottom another 30 ft down. And the walls of coral were magnificent, just like Jen has recorded.
You know, one part of me says that the negative propaganda put out about the GBR’s demise is not such a bad thing, because if most people in the world knew what it is really like, there would be literally hundreds of millions of tourists and students from all around the world aboard cruise ships anchoring all up & down the inner western shelves of the GBR wherever they could find a space.
And that would really see the demise of the GBR.
As negative as this may sound, the coral graveyard debris is an extremely important point in this film as it shows without obfuscation the reality of the coral cycles over time.
It is this clear fact that the AGW advocates avoid.
Growing up the cliff edge over time from the deep sea floor as the last glacial epoch slowly retreated … no wonder that the climate change advocates insist that geology is irrelevant. What else to do with fact that mocks their hysteria ?
Article on German online Deutsche Welle site citing Terry Hughes as saying 50% of the reef is dead since 1990 so recovery is compromised.. Maybe to counter your recent posts.
https://www.dw.com/en/half-of-australia-great-barrier-reef-corals-have-died-since-the-1990s-study-reveals/a-55269668