🧪 A perfect storm
Since March, what can only be described as a perfect storm has caused a toxic algal bloom to be supercharged by climate change.
Hotter-than-average oceans and air temperatures, plus unusually calm waters, have created the perfect breeding ground for algae.
🐚 “Truly catastrophic”
University of Tasmania marine ecologist, Dr Scott Bennett told the National Account it was “a complete disaster.”
“I don’t think it can be understated — the scale of devastation that South Australia is experiencing at the moment
“If this was happening on Sydney beaches, we’d all know about it. If it was happening on the Great Barrier Reef, it’d stop the nation. The amount of marine life that is dying and washing up in South Australia is truly catastrophic.”
🌏 A reef like nowhere else
Around 70 percent of the species that live on the Great Southern Reef are found nowhere else on Earth. That includes species that are already fleeing degraded habitats in other parts of the country.
“Once we lose it… it’s gone. We can’t bring it back from anywhere else. A lot of these species — you just don’t find them anywhere else” Dr Bennett said.
The Great Southern Reef was seen as a kind of sanctuary — now that is under threat.
💸 Big impacts, zero funding
Dr Bennett stressed the toll it’s going to play on people’s psyche and well-being in South Australia.
“It’s going to have huge economic impacts — on tourism, the fishing industry, and recreational fishing.
“All these things are going to be affected, and they may be affected for decades.”
Despite this, a push to fund a national monitoring program for the Great Southern Reef has failed twice.
Researchers wrote to former Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in 2023, and to current Minister Murray Watt this May — asking for $40 million to track the health of reefs across the bottom half of the country.
Despite the evidence, the attempts for funding have been unsuccessful.
“This [the algal bloom] is exactly why we need these programs — to have visibility and accountability,” said Dr Bennett.
“Right now, there are literally no national programs tracking how our reefs are changing over time. None.”
🌊 “We give the ocean nothing in return”
Besides cutting emissions and slowing climate change, Dr Bennett says the solution starts with valuing the ocean properly.
“We’re dependent on it as a nation. It’s part of our society, part of our culture.
We’re so deeply connected to our coasts — and yet we give them nothing in return.
We don’t protect them. We don’t even celebrate them for their worth.
This algal bloom in South Australia is showing us just how much we have to lose.”