"There is substantial evidence to indicate that the already degraded coral reefs and seagrasses in the region will be exposed to not only six to seven years of degraded water quality due to the dredging and disposal but also to additional environmental impacts from increasing sea temperatures, cyclones, floodwaters during this time," the executive summary says.
In response, in 2007, the municipality formulated the Greater Mumbai disaster management action plan, which identified the risks and vulnerabilities the city could face, including floods, earthquakes and cyclones; it also formed the Disaster Management Cell to co-ordinate relief and rescue efforts, and widened and deepened the Mithi River, which drains into the Arabian Sea.
GBR has been subject to severe disturbances, including COTS outbreaks, mass coral bleaching and declining growth rates of coral due to increasing seawater temperatures, terrestrial runoff, tropical cyclones, and coral diseases.
He told me: It is not scientifically accurate to claim that cyclones are killing off the Reef.
Pollution is the culprit, not cyclones which are part of the natural dynamic of the Reef.
The major culprits, the study said, were attacks by Crown of Thorns starfish, destruction from cyclones and coral bleaching.
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The real issue is to ask, why are reefs away from people still perfectly able to recover from cyclones, as they always have, while polluted reefs nearer to the coast are in rapid decline?
The ability of the reef to grow back after COTS events and cyclones is essentially indexed to how well corals are growing.
Even a cursory look at Queensland's weather patterns near the Reef over the past decade would show that severe weather, including tropical cyclones and flooding, is a regular occurrence, even if you disregard massively destructive events like Cyclone Yasi.
You don't normally get much in the way of cyclones, at least not in my part of south London, so I was thrilled to find out that in the Indian Ocean cyclone warnings run from one to four.
