The Great Barrier Reef is ‘dead’ at the age of 25 million years after ‘worst mass bleaching on record’, claims writer

AFTER suffering “the worst mass bleaching on record”, a writer claims the 25-million-year-old Great Barrier Reef is “dead”.

A diver checks the bleached coral at Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Caitlin Seaview.

THE Great Barrier Reef has been declared dead at 25 million years old by an environmentalist writer.

The incredible Coral Sea wilderness, which stretches for roughly 2250km over an area of roughly 2150km, has finally succumbed to bleaching writes Rowan Jacobsen, according to The Sun.

The icon of the natural world is bigger than the whole of the United Kingdom and is composed of more than 2900 individual reefs and 900 islands.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority said that during 2016 the reef died “due to the worst mass bleaching event on record”.

It is home to 1625 species of fish, 3000 molluscs, and 30 different types of whales and dolphins.

The reef lies off the coast of Queensland and can be seen from outer space.

Jacobsen declared the incredible structure dead, and wrote: “The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in 2016 after a long illness.

He added: “It was 25 million years old.”

The reef is commonly referred to as the world’s largest living thing but it is actually made up of billions of tiny organisms.

The world’s largest living thing is a 4km-wide honey fungus stretching across the Blue Mountains in Oregon.

The Great Barrier Reef is famous for its colourful fish and coral.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has started the second phase of its survey to assess the impact of 2016’s bleaching.

The research showed that “22 per cent of the coral on the reef died due to the worst mass bleaching event on record”.

Eighty-five per cent of the mortality occurred in a 600km stretch of reef between the tip of Cape York and just north of Lizard Island.

An orange clownfish swims through the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Auscape.

In 2009, the chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science Charles Veron held a talk called: “Is the Great Barrier Reef on Death Row?”

Jacobsen wrote an obituary for the reef in Outside, in which he quoted Veron as saying: “The whole northern section is trashed.

“It looks like a war zone.”

“It’s heartbreaking.

“I used to have the best job in the world.

“Now it’s turned sour.”

This story originally appeared in The Sun

An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: iStock.