A highly protected island off central Queensland is known for some of the best coral cover on the great barrier reef. But almost a year on from a mass coral bleaching event. A team of researchers is assessing its recovery with mixed results.
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00:00These researchers are getting ready to dive into the pristine waters on the Southern Great
00:08Barrier Reef, but they're worried about the extent of coral bleaching they'll see.
00:14This is my third time here over the course of this event this year, so I hate to say
00:18we're getting numb to it, but we kind of expected it, probably more than when we first came.
00:22One Tree Island is a remote research station 100 kilometres off the central Queensland
00:28coast. Warmer than average ocean temperatures last summer caused widespread damage. It's
00:35estimated more than 50% of the coral has died here.
00:39It was pretty, I guess, shocking to go back out there and see the amount of coral death
00:44that we've had.
00:45We've only done two dives, but I'm sure we're going to see more of the same, just a lot
00:49of mortality.
00:50But there have been some small areas of recovery.
00:54One big moment was a Porites Bomby that's just right off the station here. It's a really
00:59big, beautiful type of coral that's huge and it's full of fish. When we went to that site
01:04I was so nervous because I was like, oh, please, please let that thing be OK, and it was actually.
01:08The team is making 3D maps of this part of the reef to monitor its health.
01:14We can track the colonies through time and actually see all those colonies, what was
01:19their fate through this bleaching event.
01:21This tiny island is one of only two parts of the Great Barrier Reef, which is an orange
01:26zone, meaning it can only be accessed for education and research purposes and is a no-go
01:31zone for tourists.
01:33So far out from everything, which is what makes it so special.