Although the results of the meeting of the Reef 2050 advisory committee are in, government officials aren’t willing to make any changes to the Reef 2050 plan.

Back in 2015, the Queensland government released something called the Reef 2050 Long Term Sustainability Plan. They did it because the Unesco World Heritage Centre let them know that they were considering adding the Great Barrier Reef to the list of world heritage sites that were under severe threat. Now, though, in a meeting of the Reef 2050 advisory committee, at least two groups of experts said the battle to “ensure the Great Barrier Reef continues to improve on its outstanding universal values” has already been lost.

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A scientific research expedition, funded by the tourism industry, to a remote part of the Great Barrier Reef will look for climate change-resistant coral in a bid to understand how coral can survive.

Great Barrier Reef Legacy (GBR Legacy), a nonprofit organisation, will launch the 21-day trip in November, inviting more than 10 scientists, including Australia’s Charlie Veron — known as the “godfather of coral”, on the research boat.

During the expedition, Veron — former chief scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science — will search for “super corals”, species that have the strongest capacity to cope with rising temperatures.

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It’s the world’s biggest coral reef system, home to some 400 types of coral. In the past 18 months, rising ocean temperatures helped cause the single greatest loss of coral ever recorded there.

Nearly a hundred miles off the shore of Port Douglas, Australia, tourists jump into the water of the outer reef. On their dive, they see giant clams, sea turtles and a rainbow of tropical fish, all swimming above brightly colored coral.

On a boat, marine biologist Lorna Howlett quizzes the tourists in the sunshine. “How many people out there saw a coral highlighter-yellow?” she asks, eliciting a show of hands. “What about highlighter-blue? Yeah? Anyone see some hot pinks?”

Eager hands shoot up among the few dozen tourists lounging on the deck of the boat in their wetsuits.

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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) just released its ‘List of World Heritage in Danger’, and it has one notable omission. The Great Barrier Reef.

Australian experts have spoken out about the exclusion.

Dr Hugh Sweatman, Senior Research Scientist and Leader of the Long-term Monitoring Program for coral reefs of the Great Barrier Reef at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)

Over the past 12 months hard coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef declined by about a quarter, bringing average reef-wide coral cover down to 18 per cent.These findings are based on surveys of 68 mainly mid- and outer-shelf reefs to March 2017, and do not yet include the impact of Tropical Cyclone Debbie or the further intense coral bleaching in 2017.

In general, the impacts of coral bleaching, cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks differ along the 1,500 km length of the Reef.

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