The reef between hope and loss
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Introduction
In June 2026, our Head of Knowledge, Emily Jateff travelled to Cairns and the outer reaches of the Great Barrier Reef to engage with scientists, tourism operators, business leaders and local communities grappling with one of Australia's most pressing environmental questions: what does the future hold for the Reef?
Through conversations at Big Blue Ideas - Beyond the Bleach panel, the 2026 Australia & The Pacific Ocean Business Leaders’ Summit and firsthand observations on Hastings Reef, Emily encountered a striking range of perspectives—from optimism and resilience to deep concern and uncertainty. In this reflection, she explores the concept of "hauntology" and considers how competing narratives about the Reef's past, present and future shape the way Australians understand, value and respond to this globally significant ecosystem.
2026 Australia & The Pacific Ocean Business Leaders’ Summit
Images courtesy Ocean Decade Australia
Senator the Hon. Murray Watt, Minister for the Environment and Water, Commonwealth of Australia, addresses delegates at the 2026 Australia & The Pacific Ocean Business Leaders’ Summit.
Australian National Maritime Museum
2026 Australia & The Pacific Ocean Business Leaders’ Summit.
Images courtesy Ocean Decade Australia
Hauntology of the Reef
Hauntology (def): where the present is haunted by the ghosts of the past or lost futures.
It is a difficult thing to comprehend the future of the Great Barrier Reef. Arguably the best managed reef system in the world, it is still vulnerable to increases in severe weather events, temperature and acidification. Human actions have impact here. The scale of that impact is where the difficulties lie. Not just in the reality of the physical changes that may be wrought, but in the differing opinions of how permanent any damage might be.
In June, I came face-to-face with the depth and complexity of our varying personal beliefs regarding the Great Barrier Reef’s future. Beginning with a moderated panel titled Beyond the Bleach for the Museum’s Big Blue Ideas series and Vivid Minds Festival, to the 2nd Ocean Business Leaders’ Summit in Cairns, to a day trip to the outer reef, where I listened to the reflections of both first-time visitors and those directly engaged in tourism operations, I heard everything from ‘it’s perfect’ to ‘it’s doomed’ to ‘these are just annual cycles of change’.
Snorkelers investigate the reef at low tide. If you got too close to it, dive operators will shout and whistle at you. If you don’t stop, you’ll be removed from the water. They take their guardian status seriously.
Australian National Maritime Museum
The Coral Nurture Program, co-founded by Beyond the Bleach panellist, Dr Emma Camp, collaborates with dive operators and Traditional Owners on coral restoration efforts.
Courtesy Imogen Thackrey
Hastings Reef at low tide
Courtesy Imogen Thackrey
The Coral Nurture Program, co-founded by Beyond the Bleach panellist, Dr Emma Camp, collaborates with dive operators and Traditional Owners on coral restoration efforts. There are two in-water nurseries at Hastings Reef.
Courtesy Imogen Thackrey
The World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef is an Australian icon. It is so big it makes up more than 10 percent of the world’s coral reef systems, providing habitat for over 9000 marine species, including whales, dugong, birds, molluscs and at least 14 species of sea snakes. More than 70 Traditional Owner groups claim connection to Sea Country here, it contributes $9 billion per year to the national economy and supports over 77,000 jobs. The Great Barrier Reef Foundation states, “if it was a company, it would be our fifth-largest employer”. It is unquestionably worth our attention.
Yet, over the last few years, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee has given Australia repeated warnings that the outlook for the Reef remains ‘very poor’. Most recently, UNESCO requested a progress report on the reef, which was submitted for review in February 2026. In July, the World Heritage Committee met to decide whether or not to add our iconic Great Barrier Reef to the global Heritage in Danger List. This time, it squeezed through.
Woven Fish by Brian Robinson this work consists of five 2.5m high x 1.5m wide stainless steel replicas of the traditional Torres Strait Islander practice of weaving palm leaves into the shape of fish.
Australian National Maritime Museum
Beyond the Bleach panellist and noted Torres Strait Islander artist Brian Robinson’s installation Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef greets visitors to the Cairns Esplanade.
Australian National Maritime Museum
When we asked the audience at Beyond the Bleach if they thought that the Reef would be listed as ‘in danger’ this year, all but two said yes. But when I asked the same question of selected business leaders and tourism operators, the majority said no. These differing answers may say more about us than they say about the Reef itself. Are some of us fatalists, and others overly hopeful, are we all just a little bit of both, or are the facts just not cutting through?
On my dive to Hastings Reef, on the Great Barrier Reef outer reef, I saw life. Yes, there were broken and dead corals, but there were also new corals breaking through the old, fish, stingray, sharks and at least one turtle (or at least someone said they saw a turtle.) There were also two Coral Nurture Program in-water nursery frames, where dive operators and scientists work together to assist corals to reproduce in a safe and elevated environment. We had to go further offshore to see this, and it didn’t look exactly like what Valerie and Ron Taylor saw during the 1967 Belgian-led scientific survey of the Reef, and even less like what scientists recorded during the 1928-1929 Great Barrier Reef Expedition, but it wasn’t a wasteland. Yet.
Clownfish at rest within their anemone home on Hastings Reef.
Courtesy Imogen Thackrey
The Coral Nurture Program, co-founded by Beyond the Bleach panellist, Dr Emma Camp, collaborates with dive operators and Traditional Owners on coral restoration efforts. There are two in-water nurseries at Hastings Reef.
Courtesy Imogen Thackrey
I don’t have any real answers here, I’m not a coral reef expert, except to say that I don’t think we can be haunted by the Reef that was, or imagine that the Reef will be as it is depicted in Finding Nemo, either now or in the future. (That’s a cartoon.) The Reef is a living, breathing organism, and it will change. Some of these changes will be natural and some of these will be because of us, either bad or good.
To be haunted by either what was or what could be helps no one. What is clear to me is that Australians (and international tourists) love our Great Barrier Reef and it serves us well, economically and culturally. Preserving what we have left is not fearmongering or catastrophizing; it is just common sense.
References
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority 2026, Great Barrier Reef facts and figures, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Townsville.
UNESCO World Heritage Committee 2025, Decision 47 COM 7B.2: Great Barrier Reef (Australia), UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris.
UNESCO World Heritage Committee 2026, Decision regarding the Great Barrier Reef, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris.