Australias Great Barrier Reef suffers extensive coral bleaching, as scientists fear seventh mass bleaching event [Video]

The southern Great Barrier Reef is suffering from extensive coral bleaching due to heat stress, the reef’s managers said Wednesday, raising fears that a seventh mass bleaching event could be unfolding across the vast, ecologically important site.Related video above: The race to save the Great Barrier Reef (2018)Aerial surveys conducted last weekend by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science found bleaching was “extensive and fairly uniform across all surveyed reefs.”The teams flew over 27 inshore reefs in the Keppel Islands and Gladstone region and 21 offshore reefs in the Capricorn Bunkers off the coast of southern Queensland last weekend.Dr. Mark Read, the authority’s director for reef health, said most coral surveyed “displayed some level of bleaching with white and fluorescent colonies observed in shallow reef areas.”Covering nearly 133,000 square miles (345,000 square kilometers), the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral …