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Opal Reef

A short story based on true events which occurred at Opal Reef on the Great Barrier Reef. This story exemplifies the resilience and capability of coral reefs to rebuild themselves after natural phenomenon and adapt to environmental changes such as climate change.

 The storm ravaged the sea. It was 9:oopm on Aprill 11, 2014. The glint of the moon among the night stars was completely obscured, hidden by a whirlwind of chaos.

 

Cyclone Ita.

 

She came toward the reef with great strength and speeds of up to 230km per hour. Her voice reached far on land where she spread fingers of destruction, crumpling roads and sugar cane plantations with her fury. Families held each other as she ravaged the land, their cries washed away by pounding rain. Yet, while they huddled in their homes protected, the reef blundered amidst the pandemonium.

 

In direct line of fire lay exquisite life, forming a most spectacular sanctuary for many marine species. The name of this place, Opal Reef. Her expanse blossomed with vibrant corals and clams, while fishes of varying size lazed and pecked at her curves. Serenity was a word to describe this home to the many hundreds of organisms that lived there. Yet, everything was to change on this particular night.

 

Ita unravelled herself across the reef, boasting magnificent power through waves of great magnitude, reigning destruction along her path. She tore at the curves of Opal, ripping delicate corals from the substrate and smashing them like fine china on a wooden floor. Those that could swim struggled with great effort to dodge her blows. Smaller critters hid as best they could, sheltering themselves in cracks or submerging themselves within the sand.

 

As her anger subsided, Cyclone Ita relinquished her claws on the reef and continued her journey down south. The damage however, had already been done. Opal lay a shamble of broken coral fragments and overturned clams. The debris that remained was unrecognizable. The intricacy and delicate beauty of reef organisms only hours prior had vanished, their souls lost, now floating in the water column. Her recovery was slow and exhausting. Extreme temperatures during the summers of 2016 and 2017 tried their very hardest to bleach the earthy tones from the corals on their road to recovery. While they remained fervent with resilience, the sun did not shine again upon all coral colonies. Arms of branching corals which snapped as swiftly as a twig from a tree, lay broken and untouched. Shards of shattered coral littered the reef floor for months, years. Eventually, their bodies formed solid rubble for new coral colonies to grow upon. Eventually, the disarray left behind by Cyclone Ita was forgotten.

 

To this day, the scars of Cyclone Ita lie visible, stark against the soft corals that move in the direction of the current. Yet scars are all they are. A memory of what had been. And although unappealing to the eye like a sunflower meadow withered in parts, the beauty that has grown from the wreckage of Ita, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, is both astounding and promising. Promising, as Opal Reef is only one example of the resilience and capability of our Australian Great Barrier Reef to bounce back from the ever-present threats it faces.

 

 

 

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