The Latest Breaking News from Great Barrier Reef

Polluted runoff is still smothering the Great Barrier Reef, our first national assessment of water quality trends in Australian rivers has revealed. The problem on the reef is getting worse, not better, despite efforts to improve farming practices and billions of dollars committed by governments to water-quality improvements.

Exclusive: Documents seen by Guardian Australia show a sustained strategy approved by environment minister Tanya Plibersek

Conservationists say the response by the local authority has been ‘surprising’ and ‘disappointing’

Environmentalists say marine park waste regulations need updating to limit grey water and exhaust chemicals as passenger cruise numbers rise

For coral reefs, climate change is an existential threat. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has endured seven mass bleaching events over the past 25 years. Five have occurred in the past eight years.

The Great Barrier Reef, which supports an estimated 64,000 jobs and has a social and economic value of around A$6.4 billion, is under threat due to human-induced climate change.

A huge seagrass nursery has been built in central Queensland to supply food to endangered animals and remove pollutants from the Great Barrier Reef.

Almost half of all warm-water species of coral are threatened with extinction due to climate change, a new report said on Wednesday. This marked a significant increase from the last assessment in 2008, when a third of all species was listed as threatened.

A sleeper train with ‘thoughtful touches’ along the Queensland coast offers diverse and diver-friendly access points to the Great Barrier Reef