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THREATS TO REEF HIGHLIGHTED IN WINNING STORIES19 August 2002 Three university students have been awarded prizes totaling $1500 in a national competition for stories about marine science in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. Ms Vanessa Woods, a postgraduate student at the Australian National University, won this year’s $1000 CRC Reef Marine Science Journalism Prize for her story about coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef. Ms Woods paints a bleak picture for the reef’s future in her story. She quotes Professor Hoegh-Guldberg, from the University of Queensland who says that “corals will not survive the sea temperatures predicted by ninety nine percent of all global climate experts. The rising temperatures will lead to more common episodes of coral bleaching an ultimately to the death of the Great Barrier Reef.” Ms Woods also quotes Dr Terry Done, a research scientist from the Australian Institute of Marine Science and Program Leader with CRC Reef Research Centre, who sees a less bleak but equally uncertain future for the Great Barrier Reef. “In the long term, I don’t think the reefs are doomed,” says Dr Done “We may have different reefs, ones which we may not like as much, but they will be there in some form or another.” The CRC Reef Marine Science Journalism prize was awarded to Ms Woods by The Hon Peter McGauran, Minister of Science, at the opening of the Australian Science Festival on 16 August. Mr Daniel Bateman and Ms Kellie Lobb, both from James Cook University in Townsville, were jointly awarded the $250 Dorothy Paramore Highly Commended Award for their stories. Ms Dorothy Paramore is an artist who donated the proceeds from the sale of a painting from her Great Barrier Reef Series to benefit a student studying the reef. She has exhibited her works in London, Johannesburg and Sydney. Ms Paramore now lives in Sydney. Ms Lobb’s story was about the threat of run-off to inshore reefs. She says in her story that there has been a several-fold increase in the concentrations of sediment and nutrients in the waters that drain from the adjacent land into the sea. The “indirect effects of terrestrial run-off change the capacity of reef systems to recover from disturbances which are otherwise a natural part of reef environments.” Mr Daniel Bateman’s story was about the difficulty of finding employment as a marine scientist in Australia. According to Mr Bateman, “We may see marine students…. in the near future flipping burgers for a living instead of finding a way to prevent coral bleaching.” The CRC Reef Marine Science Journalism Prize and Dorothy Paramore Highly Commended Awards are awarded annually by CRC Reef Research Centre for factual stories about marine science in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area The CRC Reef Marine Science Journalism competition is open to full-time students from tertiary institutions in Australia. This year’s entries were judged by journalists from Australasian Science magazine. All three stories will be published in the September edition of Australasian Science. For more information contact: |
