{"id":302517,"date":"2024-02-17T19:55:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-17T18:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=302517"},"modified":"2024-02-17T19:55:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-17T18:55:48","slug":"cyclone-kirrily-smashed-my-favourite-coral-reef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=302517","title":{"rendered":"Cyclone Kirrily Smashed my Favourite Coral Reef"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From Jennifer Marohasy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0jennifer<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you care enough to know what damage, real damage, from a cyclone looks like at a coral reef, get yourself to Townsville and book a trip with Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive<\/a> to John Brewer Reef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not <\/em>hard to describe parts of John Brewer Reef three weeks after cyclone Kirrily.  My dive buddy, and one of the best underwater cinematographers in the world, Stuart Ireland, described what was once my favourite underwater crevasse overlaid with massive, perfectly arranged, pink plate corals, he now describes it as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Bull in a China Shop Alley.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the corals have been picked-up, flipped-over, and smashed-up, at this section of John Brewer Reef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Large sections of reef have been \u2018demolished\u2019, John Brewer Reef, February 15, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The plate corals were once so large, and back in April 2022, it was all so aesthetically pleasing because the corals were the right way up, growing together, tastefully arranged, delicately balanced, at varying heights, and a lovely pink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Before Tropical Cyclone Kerrily, this section of new growth reef photographed by Leonard Lim in April 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many of these massive corals that you can see in our film, \u2018Bleached Colourful\u2019, they have been lifted and flipped over.\u00a0 Such was the power of tropical cyclone Kirrily, barely a category three system as it passed over John Brewer reef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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