‘Tourists ask a lot of questions’: Great Barrier Reef guides face up to bleaching tragedy

ShowCoral bleaching describes a process where the coral animal expels the algae that live in their tissues and give them their colour and much of their nutrients.

Diving guide Tahlia Young examines bleached coral at Heron Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef.

Yolanda Waters is founder of advocacy group Divers for Climate and has been diving in the southern section of the reef in recent weeks.

Photograph: Amy Lawson/@amyintheocean Tahn Miller has been working as a dive instructor and guide at Wavelength Reef Cruises in Port Douglas in far north Queensland for 15 years.

Miller remembers hearing stories from a decade ago of how some dive guides in other parts of the reef would be told not to mention climate change to guests for fear of perpetuating ideas the natural treasure was either dying or not worth visiting.

There are several tour operators that are also running small reef restoration projections in the areas they visit, including replanting corals.