The Great Barrier Reef is seeing record high levels of coral cover across two-thirds of the world’s largest coral reef system since monitoring began 36 years ago, according to a new report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).
Between August 2021 and May 2022, the 87 representative reefs surveyed revealed average hard coral cover in the northern region increased to 36 percent from 27 percent in 2021.
The central region also increased to 33 percent from 26 percent in 2021. Average coral cover in the southern region remains comparably high, but decreased from 38 percent in 2021 to 34 percent.
The recovery comes after increasingly frequent coral bleaching events, with the most recent one occurring in March….