Outlook "poor" for Great Barrier Reef: study

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest living organism, is under grave threat from climate warming and coastal development, and its prospects of survival are "poor," a major new report found on Wednesday.

While the World Heritage-protected site, which sprawls for more than 345,000 square km (133,000 sq miles) off Australia's east coast, is in a better position than most other reefs globally, the risk of its destruction was mounting.

"Even with the recent management initiatives to improve resilience, the overall outlook for the Great Barrier Reef is poor and catastrophic damage to the ecosystem may not be averted," a government reef management body said in the report.

The five-yearly reef outlook report, aimed at benchmarking the health of the reef, found climate change, declining water quality from coastal runoff, development and illegal fishing were the biggest dangers to the reef.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5810XZ20090902