Australia's Northern Great Barrier Reef areas become horrifyingly worse

The Great Barrier Reef located in Australia is composed of around 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,300 kilometres over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres. It is named to be one of the seven wonders of world.

But for quite a long time now the reef has been is a state of calamity, and from study after study the reef's condition isn't proving to be any better. According to Latin American Herald Tribune a recent study published last Wednesday show further devastation of the coral reefs due to a massive coral bleaching occurring in the northern areas of The Great Barrier Reef.

A report in Huffington Post notes the total of 83 reefs that were surveyed in March, a huge majority of the reef structures were profoundly impacted by a period of prolonged heat that turned once colorful coral formations into a whitish hue. A further understanding of what coral bleaching is suppose to be, it doesn't necessarily mean the corals are already dead but very stressed rather. Stress coming from a change in water temperature (when waters become warmer and over other environmental factors), the stressful condition on the corals expels a certain algae (zooxanthellae) that lives in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white.

This gives a spark of hope that The Great Barrier Reef can still be saved, although it will take a long period of time to heal. Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the Australian Climate Council states that the continued destruction of rare and valuable species of corals such as plate corals and others will play hand in hand with the disappearance of other marine life creatures.

Professor of Biology at Macquarie University in Sydney Leslie Hughes in her own words stated "The composition of the fish community has changed." Professor Hughes continued "There's still a lot of fish that eat the algae and they're doing quite well. But fish like parrot fish, that eat the coral, have disappeared."

As an act of damage control UNESCO have been taking the responsibility of "regrowing" species of corals at a rate of 2.85% a year, according to a study on the 27-year decline of coral cover on The Great Barrier Reef by Australian scientists.