Australia will allocate A$500 million ($379.10 million), in an attempt to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Specifically, the funding will aim to improve the water quality and safeguard the Coral Reef from starfish attacks.
As Australia’s Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg told that part of the funding will make sure that sediment, nitrogen and pesticide won’t end up in the coral reef, damaging its ecosystem.
The Great Barrier Reef expands in an area of 348,000 square kilometers and has been named as world heritagein 1981 as the most spectacular coral reef on the planet, according to UNESCO.
Last year, UNESCO was considering to put the coral reef as endangered, but didn’t do so in order to give time to Australia to save the Great Barrier Reef and in order not to harm the country’s tourism, Reuters reported.
However, a recent attack of starfish which are essentially eating the corals, thus damaging the world’s most impressive coral reef. Moreover, agricultural products also destroy the reef, Bradley Opdike, a marine scientist at the Australian National University, said.
Nevertheless, despite the announced funding, many are still sceptic as to if this is actually going to work. However, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop seemed optimistic and said that Australia’s Reef 2050 will achieve its goals.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
Recently, Australia had announced another set of measures. These measures include a $6 million concept feasibility phase led by AIMS with CSIRO and other partners, including the Great Barrier Marine Park Authority, Great Barrier Reef Foundation, James Cook University, The University of Queensland and the Queensland University of Technology to develop a new substantive Reef Restoration and Adaptation Program.
The funding recognizes the importance of the Great Barrier Reef and assesses the benefits, risks and costs of existing and new technologies to assist in the repair of the Reef.
The package also includes $10.4 million to reduce coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, $4.9 million to enhance the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park’s Joint Field Management program and $36.6 million to improve the water entering of the Reef.
