Science interventions to help resurrect the Great Barrier Reef

A $300m research effort will investigate novel ways to protect the Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching and other impacts of climate change.

Corals at Lodestone Reef in the Great Barrier Reef near Townsville.

The Great Barrier Reef could be healthier in 30 years’ time than it is today with the use of new technologies to build resilience together with action on climate change, one of Australia’s leading marine scientists has said.

Australian Institute of Marine Science chief executive Paul Hardisty said early research had shown some “really remarkable positive outcomes”.

AIMS is spearheading a $300m research effort launched on Thursday to further investigate novel ways to protect the Great Barrier Reef from coral bleaching and other impacts of climate change.

Painting clouds white with a fine mist of sea water to reflect sunlight, creating areas of dense fog, breeding and dispersing more heat-tolerant corals and stepping up work to kill crown-of-thorns starfish will all be fully ­assessed. Forty-three projects were culled from 160 methods that were included in a two-year feasibility study.

The federal government will contribute $100m from funds already given to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

The foundation says it will raise a further $100m from ­corporate donors. Both amounts will be matched on a one-for-two basis by Australia’s leading research institutions.

Organisations in the resilience project include AIMS, CSIRO, University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, James Cook University, Southern Cross University, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the research could help the reef recover from bleaching: “Climate change remains the biggest threat to the world’s coral reefs and while a global response is needed to tackle emissions, Australian science can lead the way in developing adaptive technologies to help protect the reef.”

GBR Foundation chief executive Anna Marsden said the research had “potentially global” significance.

“There is real hope for the reef,” Dr Hardisty said. “We have found it is technically feasible to act at a scale of multiple hundreds of square kilometres.

“We need to do the research to ensure this is done safely, cost-effectively, in a way acceptable to the public and regulators.

“Some of our modelling shows if you can get widespread shading and cooling systems working together with powerful reseeding and deployment of ­hybridised heat-tolerant corals, and got really good crown-of-thorns starfish control, and put it all together and met the Paris targets, then the reef could in 30 years be better than it is now.”