Doctor William Skirving from the United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Reef Watch has projected a major coral bleaching event in the Great Barrier Reef as a result of a spike in ocean warming.
It has been emphasized that this event will likely be larger and more intense than previous bleaching events which troubled the reef in 2016 and 2017, and will affect southern parts of the reef which have previously escaped dramatic bleaching events.