Hasbeen, what is wrong with your ears/eyes, while I was critiquing the endless expansion of very obviously amateurish dive operators etc. Some who've seemed to lose their passengers? Their safety procedures and buddy system just downright sloppy? The real danger to the inner reef has been the outflow of human effluent, sometimes presented by diabolically disingenuous greens as farm fertilizer runoff?

There seems to be more and more of these annual hordes swelling our coastal towns and cities. You're there as usual as the barking junkyard dog in attack mode! And as usual without reason!

Sustainable development would allow these places to grow naturally, divert their runoff/effluent back inland and to serve the local populace first and foremost, rather than the white shoe brigade, realtors and exploitative tourist operators.

You're not the only seaman in the world. I haven't bothered to endlessly blow my trumpet they way you do, but I spent a considerable portion of my adult life operating an ocean going dredge and using it as the main pump, and shelter, while we built jetties and wharves up and down the coast. Built harbors and augmented islands, with recovered original sandy beaches that had been taken over by the endless expansion of mangrove swamps. Even built a couple of islands!

Pull your head in grumpy. I already knew the reef was big, as big as Victoria in fact and a submerged mountain range topped with islands and multiple reefs, lots!

Just because I spent a lot of time on a road, doesn't make me an expert on the surrounding terrain or landscape! Get over yourself genius!
Alan B.

In that case Alan you know you could have the entire population of Queensland & NSW living on the Queensland tropical coast & the tidal system, & the east coast current would sweep the nutrients produced down to Fraser island, & beyond. Any not consumed gratefully by the marine system would be returned ultimately to Sydney & beyond.

Even Green Island which gets the greatest number of tourists of any reef area, & is the closest to any area of even moderate population is doing OK. I guess your Hordes aren't so great after all.

Richard Horton a former editor of the world's pre-eminent peer reviewed medical journal, The Lancet, who was quoted in 2015 as saying:

“... much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance ...”

What the Scientist at AIMS say is related to gaining their Grants. Create a Fear & the money will come.

Hasbeen: A reef fisherman, who had left school at 11, & spent 40 years fishing the Swains told me it was coral spore, & how the coral released it all one night.

They had been told of that event happening for years until they first saw it happen in the Townsville Aquarium. Then next year some Professor made an amazing discovery. They just happened to be out on the Reef waiting for it to happen when it did. Duh.

Hasbeen: You will find 400 square miles of natural pollution, as a huge run of water from the mangroves carries enough mud to make the whole area too turbid for coral to survive.

All the Rivers in the North are now Dammed or have great Weirs on them, since the 70's. This stops the Great Sediment runoff that used to happen & cover the Reef a few times a year. One only has to look at the mouth of Burdekin River. Boy has it changed since I was a kid. Groper Creek, is still good fishing, but the mud build up has gone from the islands, The Mangroves have shifted North towards Alva Beach & Pyotts Beach has gone. Oh, That's my Fathers Sister beach. The big Fish Farm is right behind it if you want to look on Google Earth.
Cont.

Cont
The mouth of the Don changes by a mile every time it gets a good Run. They say all the Northern Rivers are moving South. That probably has something to do with Australia moving North by 75mm a year. I lived on the Old Bank of the Burdekin, some 10K from where the River is now. It's moved 5.4 meters further north since I was born.

The water flowing towards the Reef from the Land is the cleanest it been in 64 million years. Then one has to mention the Fresh water from the underground that comes up inside the reef. Fresh water is no good for Coral.

AlanB: The real danger to the inner reef has been the outflow of human effluent, sometimes presented by diabolically disingenuous greens as farm fertilizer runoff?

Up until the mid 80's most towns along the northern Coast had "Outhouses" & the "Dunny Man" Then Septic had to be installed, as soon as everyone had Septic the Councils put in compulsory Sewerage. I lived through that. The latest in Human Waste Farms were put in place. I had a Belgian bloke staying with me for a while that had a European Waste Management Scheme that would have actually made a Profit from all the Waste made it's own Power to run the facility. It was a bit too advance for the Townsville Council though. What goes out to sea is pure water that should be going back to the Dams or to grow Crops.
Cont

cont.
I original come from Ayr, left at 17, travelled the World, then went back to Ayr for 10 years, then up to Townsville for 20 odd years. I was in around when James Cook was established and when AIMS was established.

One of the first things AIMS found was the Crown of Thorns Starfish in the early 70's. There was a great panic. The sky was falling & there would be no Reef in 20 years, eaten out completely by the CTS. Funds came in from all over the World to save the GBR, even Russia sent Scientists. Well the end of the World didn't come & Funds started to dry up. What to do? Create another panic. Global Warming shad just started to hit the News. The Big Freeze of the 70's didn't eventuate. Suddenly the Reef was drying again & Funds started to flow again. See a pattern here? create fear, advertise that fear, combine it with another fear &, Whalla! Funds!

They didn’t know where the Giant Manta mated until my brother turned up on their wharf with Photos of him swimming with them in Upstart Bay. They threw him off the Wharf. Next year some Professor made an amazing discovery. Giant Manta’s mating in Upstart Bay. Wow! Another Grant. Amazing! The Local Fishermen used to help the Scientists pout by pointing out what they knew. Then the Scientists would close down their fishing areas. They tell them nothing now-a-days.