Cathie Page researches the Great Barrier Reef. PHOTO - REUTERS

SYDNEY – Australia‘s Great Barrier Reef, the world‘s largest living organism, may be confronting a new enemy as an unknown disease spreads almost imperceptibly through its multi-hued coral. Australian Institute of Marine Science ecologist Cathie Page said that a condition scientists are calling „white syndrome“ was found on 33 of 48 reefs surveyed in the national marine park, one of Australia‘s prime tourist attractions.

The syndrome, which leaves white marks where it has killed living tissue, has increased significantly in the past year, raising the spectre of a new threat to coral already stressed by record temperatures and careless mariners. „I think it‘s a little bit too early to say that it‘s potentially devastating because we haven‘t seen any devastation from it yet, we‘ve seen little bits and pieces of mortality,“ Page told Reuters by telephone from northeastern Australia. „It‘s something that we‘re going to continue to monitor and hopefully understand…, and hopefully it won‘t increase.“

The term white syndrome was deliberately broad, she added, because the condition could involve a number of different diseases.

The Great Barrier Reef, which stretches over 345,400 square km down the coast of the eastern state of Queensland, last southern hemisphere summer suffered the warmest sea water temperatures ever recorded. Mass bleaching, which occurs when coral becomes stressed by high temperatures and its symbiotic relationship with algae breaks down, often leading to death, affected around 60 percent of the reef in early 2002.

Page said there was a possibility that the bleaching had undermined the coral‘s ability to resist disease, and that could be a factor leading to the increase of white syndrome. White syndrome was first detected on the Great Barrier Reef in 1993 but was not considered worth monitoring until 1999. In most reefs, it is limited to a few coral colonies and divers marvelling at the marine life might not even notice it.

One thing did appear to be clearer – the condition was unlikely to be related to coastal or marine pollution as its prevalence was higher in the outer rim of the Great Barrier Reef where the environment was pristine.

Reuters