Cyclone Yasi likely to have ravaged Great Barrier Reef

James Woodford - 

On its way to ravaging cities and towns in north Queensland, severe tropical cyclone Yasi will almost certainly have left a swath of destruction on the Great Barrier Reef off Townsville.

Early last month, as floods struck southern Queensland, I accompanied a team of divers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science on an expedition to a 300-mile part of the reef – a fifth of the 1,400-mile-long World Heritage Area.

The researchers dived 13 reefs – from Myrmidon, which is 75 miles out to sea, to areas around the inshore Palm Island group, just off the mainland. Much of what we saw was spectacular and showed the reef recovering from a decade of devastation caused by coral bleaching and crown-of-thorns starfish, both of which have been responsible for large areas of coral mortality.

It may be weeks or months before scientists can fully survey and assess the damage from cyclone Yasi but, based on the effect of previous large cyclones, they will not be optimistic. Tropical cyclones generate huge waves, which pulverise coral reefs into rubble.

In March 2009, category four tropical cyclone Hamish travelled in an unusual path from north to south, tracking parallel to the coast and not making landfall. It is estimated to have affected a quarter of the Great Barrier Reef.

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