Coral reefs around the world are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time - a result of warming ocean waters - driven in part, by climate change. The event is expected to be the most extensive on record. For Australia's Great Barrier Reef, it's the fifth mass bleaching event in eight years.
Lissa Schindler - another marine ecologist - has also been diving the Great Barrier Reef for the past 20 years.“It's the first time I've gone for a dive and then not wanted to get back in. I found, just found it really confronting and really this level of grief that I haven't felt before.” There is hope for recovery, scientists say but the scale of heat stress across the Reef should serve as wake up call.