Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

John Brewer Reef – Back to Beige

By

Just as a team from the United Nations were flying into Australia at the behest of James Cook University Professor Terry Hughes – seeking to have the Great Barrier Reef’s world heritage status downgraded – Adjunct Associate Professor Adam Smith was posing for photographs at John Brewer Reef for The Guardian newspaper. At that time, back on 20 March (2022), the mild bleaching and fluorescing at John Brewer reef was being described by Professor Smith as part of a fourth mass bleaching event and in an article for The Conversation, Professor Smith suggested it could take the corals 12 years to recover.

My daughter and I were back at John Brewer reef on Sunday 10th July, the coral that was featured in The Guardian on 22 March as severely bleached is now a healthy beige. It appears to have made a full recovery in less than three months.

My daughter checking the colours of the corals against the University of Queensl
My daughter checking the colour of the corals against the University of Queensland coral health chart under the water at John Brewer Reef on 10 July 2022. The branching coral corresponded to D3 and the plate as C4. These colours indicate that the corals are healthy and replete with symbiotic algae. The growing tips of healthy corals are generally white.
A closeup of the branching and plate corals that featured in The Guardian on 22nd March as severely bleached. They are beige and chocolate brown respectively. These are healthy colours that correspond with D3 and C4 in the University of Queensland Coral Health Chart. The growing tips of healthy corals are generally white.

Most of the corals at the reef crest at John Brewer are now various shades of beige to chocolate brown, and so the reef is looking exceptionally healthy.

The reef crest at John Brewer on 10 July 2022. Photograph by Jennifer Marohasy.
According to the Coral Watch Coral Health Check Chart, the darker the brown the healthier the coral. This coral, and many of the corals at John Brewer Reef, score an exceptionally healthy C6.

According to the University of Queensland Coral Watch Coral Health Check Chart the darker the brown the more symbiotic algae and the healthier the coral. This coral scored an exceptionally healthy D6.

There were some green corals at John Brewer Reef. This green branching Acropora would perhaps score a very healthy B5 on the Coral Health Chart.
The fish are so special, and still so blue. Photograph by Jennifer Marohasy at John Brewer Reef on 10 July 2022.
A yellow fish amongst the beige corals at John Brewer Reef on 10 July 2022. Photographed by my daughter.
There were a lot of very brown corals at John Brewer reef on 10th July. The growing tips of healthy corals are generally white.
A huge thank you to Nick and the crew at Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive for getting us safely out to John Brewer reef. Photograph of Jennifer Marohasy between the boat and the reef crest taken by her daughter.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. david clark says

    Sorry but what Adam Smith penned is just another example of some very poor cherry picked science that is used as scaremongering to get the public attention for more funding

  4. Steve Niemiec says

    As always, great work. However I’m confused.
    My understanding is you get nothing financially for the work you do on the reef, right?
    JCU get many, many millions to do what you do, but instead fly over the reef and then go back to their offices and write questionable reports.
    Where on earth is the money going?

  6. Gerry Cross says

    Certainly makes the claims of catastrophic climate change and its impct on the reef a massive overstatement . Keep up the good work and many thanks

  7. Richard S Bennett says

    Colour-blindness seems to have afflicted the UN team sent to “investigate” the John Brewer coral reef. Their report is typical of charlatans desperately trying pocket some extra dollars by producing a report which is designed to misinform to fit the political narrative and is only fit for the waste bin.

  8. Glen MICHEL says

    Anyone know where the 444 million dollars ” given” by Malcolm Turnbull was disbursed? Extraordinary amount of money that has to be administered and accounted for. Would buy a lot of wet suits and associated diving apparatus. Maybe a shindig or two for Terry and his hangers on.

  9. Stuart Atkin says

    Finding our where the money has gone is a good job for an investigative journalist if there is such a thing in the Australian press. Maybe a task for Peta Credlin although she has her hands full with other topics.

  10. spangled drongo says

    Great work, Jen.
    Can this timely critique be brought to the attention of the govt department responsible for showering the huge amounts of taxpayer funds on the “science” that is so obviously in error?

  11. Mike McWha says

    Seems to me that there could be grounds to report the scientists creating fake or misleading news to their professional society for investigation, whatever their professional society is. Professional Societies such as the Royal Society and the AusIMM etc. have a Code of Ethics and Disciplinary Procedures. If these guys are doing dodgy work the professional societies have a duty to haul them in to protect the reputation of whatever science or discipline they’re working in. In the more regulated professions/ disciplines dishonest or shoddy work can lead to de-registration. In some jurisdictions even to jail (miscreant mining professionals in Canada for example). It just needs a complaint with evidence and preferably knowledgeable witnesses.

  12. Jerry Magnan says

    The guardian shows two photos of one section of the reef. The first, for Feb 3 2022 is the “pre-bleaching” photo of one area of the reef. The second for March 10 for the same section of the reef shows “bleaching”. You can click onto the photo and “drag” across it for a before-and-after comparison.
    What is quickly apparent is that the water in the “before” photo is very clear and all colors are overall darker than the “after” photo, in which the water appears murky and the colors overall somewhat washed-out and lighter in tone. Is there a reason for this? (Time of day? Camera settings? Angle of sunlight at time of photo? Possible storm or tidal effects?). Seems odd.
    Also, the degree of “bleaching” seems to be only one small bit of coral. The brown coral in particular, as well the rest of the coral, seem to not have been affected at all, even allowing for the water murkiness and “washed-out” color effects of the “after” photo.
    I wonder if Smith thought to use the Check Chart like your daughter did for a more scientific before-and-after comparison.

  13. Jack Lowe says

    Another great summary and comfort to those of us who are concerned about our planet and equally concerned about the misleading reports in the likes of The Guardian which claims to be the ‘guardian of conscience’.

    From a Mancunian, the original home of The Manchester Guardian until it dropped ‘Manchester’ from its title in 1959.

  14. Bernie Tranter says

    And the university was meant to be a bastion of truth. Thank you to independent researchers, Jennifer and daughter.

  16. Stuart Atkin says

    Hello Jen, love all your reef work – unfortunately not able to see your films being located in NSW.
    I just received a notice from Farcebook stating my sharing of your post has been blocked after being fact checked by RMIT and determined as ‘missing context’ where they say that just because one part of Brewer Reef has recovered doesn’t mean all of it has.
    How despicable – happy to condemn the whole reef from an aerial survey but won’t accept diving on the reef as proof that the reef is in good health.
    I have disputed their decision but of course nothing will come of it.
    I can send you a screen shot and the RMIT link if you wish.