Australia looks likely to miss water quality targets set out to keep the Great Barrier Reef on UNESCO's World Heritage list, a senior researcher at the Federal Government's own marine science agency has warned.
Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) principal research scientist Dr Frederieke Kroon has spoken out about environmental policies that were supposed to protect the marine park.
"Our review finds that current efforts are not sufficient to achieve the water quality targets set in the Reef 2050 Plan," she told ABC News.
The plan, launched by the Federal and Queensland governments last year, includes ambitious targets such as a 50 per cent reduction in nitrogen run-off by 2018 and an 80 per cent reduction by 2025.
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee considered the 103-page document when it last year decided to retain the reef's World Heritage status.
However, a paper published in the Global Change Biology journal found the targets were unlikely to be met.
"Land-based pollution including sediments, nutrients and pesticides from agricultural land uses remain one of the major threats to the Great Barrier Reef," Dr Kroon said.....
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-03/great-barrier-reef-aust-will-miss-targets-researcher-said/7286466

Great Barrier Reef: More corals die in reef's northern section, marine authority finds
More coral has bleached and died in the northern section of the Great Barrier Reef in the past month, new surveys reveal....
....Aerial checks of more than 900 individual reefs showed the spread varied dramatically along the Great Barrier Reef's 2,300 kilometres, but the most severe bleaching had hit the northern section of the reef, which stretches 1,000 kilometres north of Port Douglas.
A survey of the northern part conducted in March showed 95 per cent of the reefs were now severely bleached — far worse than previously thought.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-06/more-great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-over-last-month/7391436?section=environment