Huge parts of the Great Barrier Reef could be wiped out by climate change, environment experts fear 

Climate change could kill off parts of the Great Barrier Reef for good.

Conservationists have warned for years about the danger of bleaching, in which coral in warming seas turns white.

The process, where the coral expels the algae living inside it, is a sign of distress. But the coral can survive this if it receives nutrients soon enough.

However new findings show climate change can cause outright death within days. 

The process, where the coral expels the algae living inside it, is a sign of distress. But the coral can survive this if it receives nutrients soon enough (stock)

Studies of coral species hit by bleaching on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef in 2016 showed that rapid rises in water temperature similar to heatwaves on land made them die and decay much quicker than thought.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, researchers at the University of Newcastle in Australia said the alarming results showed the ‘consequences of severe heatwave events’. 

Eels are in such danger from human activity they could become extinct within a generation, experts warn.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, researchers at the University of Newcastle in Australia said the alarming results showed the ‘consequences of severe heatwave events’ (stock) 

Climate change, overfishing and the creation of more dams and weirs have seen global numbers fall by 95 per cent in 40 years. 

Now the Environment Agency says migrating eels in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have dropped as the fish find it harder to negotiate waterways. 

Jez Wood, an Agency ‘eel counter’, said just 8,000 were recorded last year in the River Wensum, Norwich – down from 34,000 in 2016. 

Only 2,162 have so far been seen this year. ‘It’s not an exaggeration to say they could disappear in our lifetime,’ he said.