Reef puts on a show for annual spawning event

The Great Barrier Reef has put on a show for those lucky few who were out on the reef the last two nights.

The annual coral spawning event is a hugely important factor for the future health of the reef and conditions must be perfect for the corals up and down the length of the reef to do their thing.

Arlian Ecker – aka Plastic Free Boy – with his mum/film maker Karin dived the reef with Divers Den the last two nights during the event. He says that conditions were perfect for the spawning and it was a life changing experience.

They are very happy to be able to share this in their upcoming film PLAN B as well as Arlian is going to share it with five Year-8 high school classes in Sydney over zoom as part of his presentation about how they can protect the Great Barrier Reef.

“The water temperature needs to be 26C in the leadup and it’s around 5 days after the full moon. It was a fantastic night, conditions were ideal.”

“The first night we found spawn in the water so we knew it had occurred however the second night we actually saw it come out of the coral and that was amazing.”

The spawning also triggers many species to feed on the trillions of sperm and eggs in the water and this creates a spectacle in its own right.

“There was an incredible amount of different fish species around including lots of sharks. At one point I turned my torch off and when I turned it back on I had a white tip reef shark nibbling on my fin!”

The third and final night of the spawning is tonight.