Australia: Reef shade structures almost a reality

Shadecloth structures protecting parts of the Great Barrier Reef could be commercially available to tourist operators within a year.

Scientists have been trialling a series of devices on Agincourt reef, off Port Douglas in far north Queensland, to prevent coral bleaching caused by warmer water temperatures and sunlight.

University of Queensland scientist Ove Hoegh-Guldberg said researchers and a local tour operator had been conducting small-scale experiments on structures 5m by 5m.

The project had reached "phase two" and larger devices could be commercially available to tourist operators in a year, he said.

"If we're successful this year in improving the circumstance of the reefs that are shaded, we'll then move on to larger structures that are more tourist friendly," Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said.

"For a tour operator to have a patch of coral that has survived a bleaching event could be quite significant in terms of their competitive advantage."

Phase three, the final phase, involves field trials of the devices at key tour-operator sites.

Coral bleaching is caused by higher than average water temperatures linked with global climate change.

Scientists this week predicted the reef was at risk of another major coral bleaching event after finding widespread bleaching at the Keppel Islands off the central Queensland coast.

Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said initial results showed the structures worked.

"There's an interaction between light and temperature ... so there's definitely a shade effect," he said.

"We have to check that it doesn't have other impacts on reefs, which we need to take into account while shading them for bleaching."

However, shading the entire reef was not an option.

"As far as the entire Great Barrier Reef (is concerned), it's just not a solution because there's 400,000 square kilometres of reef that you'd have to put a shadecloth over," Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said.

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Source: www.smh.com.au