Ship fuel sulfur content regulations may exacerbate mass coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef

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Ron Baiman

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Jun 15, 2026, 1:36:40 PM (11 days ago) Jun 15
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Dear Colleagues,

Just came across this paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-03088-1 published in Jan 2026, that closely relates to the discussion with Daniel Harrison after his May 14, 2026 HPAC presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iny72iB6FSo&t=615s   (see: 1:11:30).

I believe that this paper would add considerable weight to calls for Australia to ask it's International Maritime Organization IIMO) Rep to submit the proposal in our letter:https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/4/1/kgae008/7706251?login=false to the IMO's Marine Environment Protection Committee (MPEC) committee for consideration, as the Chair of that committee has suggested to us. 

Current estimates are that in the absence  of global or regional climate cooling during Reef impacting marine waves, or other potentially effective Reef saving intervention, warm water coral reefs estimated to be important for the well-being of up to a billion people and almost a million species including of course the Great Barrier Reef  will be gone by 2035-2040 Lenton et al. 2025, p. 42.

Without targeted action, first the corrals (the "canary in the coal mine") and then the humans and other species - unbelievably depressing!  (Also the point made at the recent UChicago geoengineering conference:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxhAu-pPzc (see: 44:00).)

Best,
Ron







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