Invitation to Visit Mass Coral Bleaching, and see the Fishes

Invitation to Visit Mass Coral Bleaching, and see the Fishes - From Jennifer Marohasy’s Blog
"I don’t think he has ever been there – not once. But he has an opinion about the Great Barrier Reef. 

Last time I looked more than 111K of his followers (after just a few hours of it being being posted) were regurgitating the nonsense message that, of course, the Great Barrier Reef is stuffed...

Too many Australians, whether young or old, voting Labor, Greens, Liberal or Teal, are mostly abrogating their capacity for reason in favour of being fashionable...

I sent Jordan Shanks the following short note by email yesterday.
friendlyjordies@protonmail.com
Dear Friendly Jordie,
I’ve just watched your episode about the Riddler and the Reef. I was hoping to see you in the water with some corals...
It was reported by Graham Readfearn in The Guardian as the worst of the worst bleached, and then there were the official aerial surveys that also reported on the bleaching. Last year, there was even the United Nation’s UNESCO people who visited – but not John Brewer Reef. They said it was all dead and dying.

This map was being promoted through March and April 2022 as showing the Great Barrier Reef suffering from mass coral bleaching with the impression that most of the coral was going to die.

But guess what: the assessment team never actually visited any of the reefs that were reported as bleached/dead and dying. 

The experts relied for their stories about the bleaching from the flybys that score the state of the corals out an aeroplane window from an altitude of 150 metres.
I’ve tried that. You can’t see much. To know the state of the corals you need to get in and under-the-water. Come see, with me.
I’ve been out to John Brewer a few times and under-the-water, and even made a short under-water documentary film showing the corals up close.
You can watch the film here, https://vimeo.com/775205373
But, of course, it is never the same as seeing with your own eyes.

The corals at John Brewer Reef as filmed, underwater and from a drone at 5, 10,20,40 and 120 metres altitude in early April 2022 – when this reef was being reported as the epicentre of the sixth mass coral bleaching. Contrary to the media headlines, there was good coral cover and the coral was colourful and healthy at John Brewer Reef.