Great Barrier Reef’s record coral cover isn’t the story scientists ‘want to talk about’

Marine Physicist Peter Ridd says the Great Barrier Reef’s record coral cover isn’t the story some scientists “want to talk about” because it doesn't fit their narrative. 

This comes as a study by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network has been quoted to suggest 14 per cent of the world’s corals have been killed in the past decade. 

“It’s very interesting when you read this report that the graph goes up and down and they’ve picked the period when it was it was at the highest, 2008 and 2009, and they’ve picked the period when it was lowest, 2018, and they show it going down,” Mr Ridd told Sky News host Andrew Bolt.  

Mr Ridd said while coral levels have decreased, they have also gone back up again since 2018. 

“So why did they choose 2018 rather than 2020? 

 “And also, why didn’t they mention that fact the Great Barrier Reef at the moment has record high coral cover? 

“A lot of the scientists involved with this work on the Great Barrier Reef but it’s remarkable that nothing is mentioned about the Great Barrier Reef because we have record high coral cover and that's not the story that they want to talk about."