A Reef in Trouble, Crocodiles, Cassowaries, Back in Sydney, and Ready for Term Three!

The Great Barrier Reef is Amazing Even Though It Is In Trouble!

Crocodiles and Cassowaries - Don't Let Us Down!

Hello Elementary Friends,

Ever since we arrived in Australia on December 29th we have routinely asked people who live here for advice on things to do and places to go while we are here.  We ask, "If you could recommend one place that we should see or go to before we go home in December, where would it be?"  Without fail, everyone says, "Far North Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree National Park, Cairns, and Port Douglas!"  All of those places are within an hour's drive from Cairns, QLD so that is where we spent a week of our Winter School Holiday.  The recommendations turned out to be sound - it is truly an amazing part of our world!  

On Friday (8 July), we drove from our condo in Port Douglas north and west a bit to Daintree National Park where we went on not one, but two, river cruises in search of CROCODILES!  And, we found them!  Our guides know most of them by name because the Daintree River is their home.  These creatures can live upwards of 60 or so years, so we were definitely entering their turf!  Our guide was a gentleman who was born and raised in the area and around 60 years old himself.  He introduced us to "Rusty," a 50 year old female who he has known since he was a boy!  Rusty is so named because of the rust coloring on her tail.  Here are some photos of our river boat ride and of Rusty and her friend Archie (also a female).

RUSTY

ARCHIE

We then drove north toward Cape Tribulation which is one of the farthest north points in Australia accessible by standard vehicles.  It is known for its conservation efforts of the Cassowary.  I was hoping and praying that I would get to see a Cassowary, and I did!  These are incredible creatures.  This one came walking out of the bush onto the side of the road just as we were driving by!

Here is a little bit of information on the Cassowary from Wikipedia:

The cassowaries are native to the tropical forests of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea and Indonesia), nearby islands, and northeastern Australia.

There are three extant species. The most common of these, the southern cassowary, is the third tallest and second heaviest living bird, smaller only than the ostrich and emu.

Cassowaries feed mainly on fruit, although all species are truly omnivorous and will take a range of other plant food, including shoots and grass seeds, in addition to fungi, invertebrates, and small vertebrates. Cassowaries are very shy, but when provoked they are capable of inflicting injuries, occasionally fatal, to dogs and people.

The northern and dwarf cassowaries are not well known. All cassowaries are usually shy birds of the deep forest, adept at disappearing long before a human knows they are there. Even the more accessible southern cassowary of the far north Queensland rain forests is not well researched.

Females are bigger and more brightly colored. Adult southern cassowaries are 1.5 to 1.8 meters (4.9–5.9 ft) tall, although some females may reach 2 meters (6.6 ft), and weigh 58.5 kilograms (129 lb).

All cassowaries have feathers that consist of a shaft and loose barbules. They do not have retrices (tail feathers) or a preen gland. Cassowaries have small wings with 5-6 large remeges. These are reduced to stiff, keratinous quills, like porcupine quills, with no barbs. A claw is on each second finger.  These, along with their wedge-shaped body, are thought to be adaptations to ward off vines, thorns, and saw-edged leaves, allowing them to run quickly through the rain forest.  Cassowaries have three-toed feet with sharp claws. The second toe, the inner one in the medial position, sports a dagger-like claw that can be 125 millimeters (5 in) long. This claw is particularly fearsome since cassowaries sometimes kick humans and animals with their enormously powerful legs. Cassowaries can run at up to 50 km/h (31 mph) through the dense forest and can jump up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft). They are good swimmers, crossing wide rivers and swimming in the sea.

I made sure that I stayed in the car and took the photos through a partially lowered window.  I did not want that three-toed foot coming at me!

Here are some more photos of our drive to Cape Tribulation:

Thank Goodness we were there in the Winter!

The next day (9th July) was our day to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef!  We have been looking forward to this experience since our arrival.  We took a charter out about 40 miles from the coast of Port Douglas.  Now - any of you who know us, probably know that we can swim a bit, but we are not strong swimmers by any means.  Mitch had been snorkeling once in Mexico, but it was my first time!  I can tell you that I listened very intently to the training that we received prior to our first of three stops at Opal Reef!  Here are photos just before and entering the Pacific Ocean with my blue noodle!

Here I am studying my flippers and the blue noodle that will be my sole flotation device!

One Last Look at Mitch before I Jump In!

Can't Turn Back Now!

Now - I must tell you that the things that I saw under the water were amazing, but I was rather preoccupied trying to remember everything they told us in our safety training.  Even if I had taken an underwater camera, I don't think I would have been able to take any photos combined with worrying about my mask, snorkel, noodle, and of course proper technique for my scissor kick!  The following are photos from people on our excursion and from the staff of our day at the reef!

Coral Cod

Honey-eyed Damsel

Fox Face Rabbitfish

This is a Humphead Wrasse who loitered around just by our boat as we were jumping off at our second stop!  He was very friendly and just wanted to see what was going on!

Swarthy Parrotfish

I can't decide if my favorite was the honey-eyed damsel, the swarthy parrotfish, or the humpback wrasse.  I think I'll go with honey just because of her name!  What do you think?

At lunch we went to a talk put on by a marine biologist on our boat.  We were just sitting out on the front deck of the boat listening to a discussion about the health of the Great Barrier Reef.  Some of what she told us was alarming.  The reef has undergone some massive bleaching over the past few decades due to global warming.  Here is some information on the "bleaching" that has occurred and is still likely in the future:

Elevated sea temperatures are the primary cause of mass coral bleaching events. Bleaching is a stress response of corals, during which they expel their zooxanthellae during unfavourable conditions, giving rise to the typical white colouration observed. Aside from temperature, other stressors such as tropical cyclones, freshwater inflows and anthropogenic pollution can also induce bleaching but to a far lesser extent and generally not on large spatial scales.

Bleaching has been observed on the Great Barrier Reef since 1982, with severe bleaching events occurring in the summers of 1998, 2002 and 2006. Major bleaching events in Southern Hemisphere reefs (Pacific and Indian Oceans) tend to occur in February-April, with a lag of up to a month in the bleaching response of corals following thermal stress. Mortality appears to increase with the intensity of the bleaching event, which is determined by how much and for how long temperatures remain above the maximum mean summer temperatures.

Seasonal forecasts from coupled dynamical models such as POAMA can be used to detect anomalous SSTs several months in advance, allowing for proactive management responses. These products have revolutionized the way in which coral bleaching events are monitored and assessed in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea.

Here are some findings from a national task force charged with studying the effects of the bleaching on the reef:

Australian scientists have revealed the full extent of the coral bleaching that is unfolding on the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of Queensland.

The final results of extensive aerial and underwater surveys reveal that 93% of the reef has been affected. It’s a mixed picture of very severe, moderate and little damage that changes dramatically from north to south along the 2300km length of the Reef.

Meanwhile on the west coast of Australia, researchers are also discovering large-scale bleaching caused by elevated temperatures on both sides of the Australian continent.

“We’ve never seen anything like this scale of bleaching before. In the northern Great Barrier Reef, it’s like 10 cyclones have come ashore all at once,” says Professor Terry Hughes, convenor of the National Coral Bleaching Task force that is documenting and studying the event. “Towards the southern end, most of the reefs have minor to moderate bleaching and should soon recover.”

“We have now flown over 911 individual reefs in a helicopter and light plane, to map out the extent and severity of bleaching along the full 2300km length of the Great Barrier Reef. Of all the reefs we surveyed, only 7% (68 reefs) have escaped bleaching entirely. At the other end of the spectrum, between 60 and 100% of corals are severely bleached on 316 reefs, nearly all in the northern half of the Reef.”

Underwater, teams of scientific divers have confirmed the accuracy of the aerial surveys, and are continuing to measure the ongoing impact of the bleaching.

“The bleaching is extreme in the 1000km region north of Port Douglas all the way up to the northern Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea,” says Prof. Andrew Baird from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, who has spent the past 17 days at sea.

“Tragically, this is the most remote part of the Reef, and its remoteness has protected it from most human pressures: but not climate change. North of Port Douglas, we’re already measuring an average of close to 50% mortality of bleached corals. At some reefs, the final death toll is likely to exceed 90%. When bleaching is this severe it affects almost all coral species, including old, slow-growing corals that once lost will take decades or longer to return.”

More modest bleaching is now reaching its peak in a 600km central band of the Great Barrier Reef, between Cairns and Mackay. According to the scientists, reefs further south have escaped damaging levels of bleaching because water temperatures there were closer to the normal summer conditions over recent months.

“The severity of bleaching in the central section is less, and closer to the intensity of the first two mass bleaching events on the Barrier Reef, in 1998 and 2002,” says Prof. Hughes. “Thankfully, many of the corals there are more moderately bleached, so we expect that most of them will survive and regain their normal colour as temperatures drop over the coming months.”

The scientists have found that the huge footprints of the three mass bleaching events in 2016, 2002 and 1998 are different. “In each case, the location of the most severe bleaching coincides with where the hottest water sits for the longest period,” says Prof. Hughes.

“This time, the southern third of the Great Barrier Reef was fortunately cooled down late in summer by a period of cloudy weather caused by ex-cyclone Winston, after it passed over Fiji and came to us as a rain depression. The 2016 footprint could have been much worse.”

Australia’s tourism industry has a longstanding commitment to protecting its most valuable natural asset, the Great Barrier Reef. Reef tourism generates an annual income of $5 billion, and employs nearly 70,000 people. The Australian government has long recognized that climate change is the biggest threat to the Reef and the people who depend on it for their livelihood.

“Thankfully, many parts of the reef are still in excellent shape, but we can’t just ignore coral bleaching and hope for a swift recovery. Short-term development policies have to be weighed up against long-term environmental damage, including impacts on the reef from climate change,” says Daniel Goschwind, Chief Executive of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council.

On the west coast of Australia, researchers from the national task force are now also documenting extensive bleaching on the coastline and on offshore atolls.

“The coastal area that I study north of Broome has huge tides, and we thought the corals there are tough “super corals” because they can normally cope with big swings in temperature,” says Dr. Verena Schoepf from the University of Western Australia. “So, we’re shocked to see up to 80% of them now turning snow-white. Even the tougher species are badly affected”.

So - what can be done?  Our marine biologist told us that one of the main things that can be done is to get the word out that this is happening!  She told us that anything that we can do to try to protect our environment will eventually help the reef.  I am just so happy that we were able to visit the reef and see this wonder of our world!  I also can not recommend it more highly if it is on your Bucket List!

Our trip to Far North Queensland ended way too soon.  We made it up to the Atherton Tablelands to see coffee plantations, a peanut farm, and countless fields of sugar cane.  Much of the coffee, sugar cane, and fruit of Australia is grown right there!  I love my photo by Mr. Peanut Man, but Mitch says he feels like he is standing next to a turd instead of a coffee bean!

Finally, here is a photo of the last place that we stayed in Queensland.  It has a funny name, but it is beautiful.  The beach is 4 kilometers long!  We loved our time up north, but now it is time to get home and get ready for Term Three at Beaumont Road Public School!

Until next week, take care, dear friends!