Great Barrier Reef 'gives birth' in massive coral spawning event

Authored by cbc.ca and submitted by -AMARYANA-

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is spawning in an explosion of colour as the World Heritage-listed natural wonder recovers from life-threatening coral bleaching episodes.

Scientists on Tuesday night recorded the corals producing billions of offspring by casting sperm and eggs into the Pacific Ocean off the Queensland state coastal city of Cairns.

The annual spawning event lasts for two or three days.

The network of 2,500 reefs covering 348,000 square kilometres (134,000 square miles) suffered significantly from coral bleaching caused by unusually warm ocean temperatures in 2016, 2017 and last year. The bleaching damaged two-thirds of the coral.

Coral spawning is genetic gold for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reef?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Reef</a> resilience! The transfer of their resilient genes to the next generation of corals will be pivotal for the long-term health of the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GreatBarrierReef?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GreatBarrierReef</a>. Share your coral spawning sightings: <a href="https://t.co/stpeKc8H31">https://t.co/stpeKc8H31</a> <a href="https://t.co/fK2dggPeE7">pic.twitter.com/fK2dggPeE7</a> —@gbrmarinepark

Gareth Phillips, a marine scientist with Reef Teach, a tourism and educational business, is studying the spawning as part of a project to monitor the reef's health.

"It is gratifying to see the reef give birth," Phillips said in a statement on Wednesday. "It's a strong demonstration that its ecological functions are intact and working after being in a recovery phase for more than 18 months."

"The reef has gone through its own troubles like we all have, but it can still respond — and that gives us hope. I think we must all focus on the victories as we emerge from the pandemic," he said.

aran69 on November 25th, 2021 at 13:45 UTC »

If anyone sees this amongst the comments, fun fact:

Although coral bleaching has become a concerningly frequent occurence, "dead" coral skeletons can act as a seed bed for the billions of spores/eggs that are released in these events, coral that was bleached in tye previous year can "come back to life" following these spawning events.

bradleykent on November 25th, 2021 at 10:33 UTC »

Shortly afterwards the reef was quoted as saying “I swear this never happens”

HopeIsDespair on November 25th, 2021 at 08:15 UTC »

I wonder if this corallated with a triggering condition.