The Great Barrier Reef risks extreme bleaching and a potential collapse of its ecosystem as an intense El Niño event strengthens across the Pacific, scientists warned Tuesday.
Morgan Pratchett, a marine ecology researcher at James Cook University, told delegates at the International Coral Reef Symposium in Auckland that a massive, large-scale bleaching event is now highly probable along the 2,300-kilometre reef system off Australia's Queensland coast. Tim Stockdale, an El Niño specialist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, said the current episode is expected to set intensity records. The reef has already endured a dramatic bleaching episode in 2024–2025, the sixth mass bleaching since 2016.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a marine studies professor at the University of Queensland, warned the Auckland conference that government inaction threatens the future of coral reefs worldwide.