Great Barrier Reef under stress from excessive numbers of visitors

A NEW and unlikely threat to the Great Barrier Reef has been revealed and, while it’s affecting only a small portion of the natural wonder, it’s prompted calls for change before it’s too late.

The Great Barrier Reef welcomes more than 2 millions visitors a year.

TOURISM operators believe the Great Barrier Reef is at risk of being loved to death with high-value tourist sites under stress and “over-capacity” from almost two million visitors a year.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is facing pressure to open up other pristine reefs to tourism permits in the popular hot spots of the Whitsundays, Palm ­Island Group and off Cairns and Port Douglas.

Figures show most tourists visit the same handful of coral reef sites which account for just 7 per cent of the 2300km-long national treasure.

Quicksilver chief Tony Baker, who heads the state’s biggest Reef operator with nine vessels taking 40 per cent of all visitors, has urged the authority to open up new reefs under the permit system to “spread the load” on the fragile ecosystem.

“We need to be able to take Reef tourists to other sites so we don’t end up loving the reef to death,” Mr Baker told The Courier-Mail.

“Most operators are at overcapacity on existing sites.”

Heather Baird, 24-year-old dive master from the reef boat Calypso, swims among the corals at Opal reef on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Port Douglas. Picture: Brian Cassey/The Australian

The Whitsundays, which is enjoying record-high numbers of Reef tourists this year, has an allocation of four million visitors but reports overcrowding at world famous Whitehaven Beach, Heart Reef and Blue Pearl Bay off Hayman Island.

Whitsunday MP Jason Costigan said there were “many other magic places visitors could go to but can’t because of green tape”.

“GBRMPA need to listen to people who are at the heart of our industry, who’ve got skin in the game, and want to see sustainable growth of Reef tourism,” he said.

“Everyone loves Heart Reef, it is the mother of all icons, but it is getting flogged to death while there are plenty of other amazing reef systems worth visiting.

“The last thing we want is boat rage and tourists falling over each other on the same tiny patch of coral.”

Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief Alex de Waal said most high-value tourism sites were in better condition than some coral systems because of the efforts of marine biologists employed by the private operators.

“I don’t think we’re at risk of loving the Reef to death. Most popular sites have fulltime marine biologists who carry out underwater gardening and cull crown-of-thorns starfish to keep them pristine,” he said.

“This is where almost two million people a year start a love affair with the Reef that lasts them a lifetime.”

GBRMPA chairman Russell Reichelt said a permit review had started in the Whitsundays with another to follow in Cairns and Port Douglas. He said our reputation as the caretaker of the Reef was the “gold standard” for the rest of the world.

“Popular tourism reefs are primarily market driven,” he said. “In heavily used areas such as offshore Cairns and the Whitsundays there are plans of management which set the number of daily operations to the area and have in place additional rules to protect values at locations that are sensitive.”

A GBRMPA scientific expedition this week launched a follow-up survey north of Lizard Island on the midyear impact of the world’s worst-ever mass coral bleaching event on the hardest-hit northern section. Dr Reichelt said initial estimates showed a 22 per cent coral mortality rate along the length of the reef with positive signs much of the reef was in recovery.