Two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has been damaged by severe coral bleaching. And now the iconic reef could be facing a new threat – plastic.

Billions of bits of plastic waste are lodged in coral reefs across the Asia-Pacific, with potentially devastating results, a new study published in the journal Science has found.

The massive amount of plastic rubbish, located in 159 reefs from Thailand to Australia, is a huge concern for the marine environment and especially coral, according to the research.

That's because the debris, like plastic bags, straws and bottles, stresses coral through “light deprivation, toxin release, and anoxia, giving pathogens a foothold for invasion”.

Reefs wrapped in plastic

The plastic problem is big. There are around 11.1 billion pieces of plastic clogging up reefs across Asia and the Pacific, with the risk of coral disease lifting from four per cent to 89 per cent in plastic-hit areas.

It’s even worse once coral is entirely draped in plastic, causing the risk of coral disease to surge by a staggering 20-fold, the research also found.

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Whatsapp The Great Barrier Reef is under threat from plastic waste.

And the situation is set to get even more severe. The study forecasted the amount of plastic scattered across the Asia-Pacific to surge by 40 per cent through to 2025 -- equal to around 15.7 billion plastic items stuck on coral reefs.

Part of Great Barrier Reef ‘tragedy’

Griffith University researcher Ali Karami said the findings were bad news for the Barrier Reef.

“Microplastic definitely has impacted this tragedy,” Dr Karami told Hack.

“Microplastic … can cause toxicity because they may release some of the contaminant they have been absorbing for the past many years.

“They can release contaminants, pathogen microorganism inhabited them, and physically they can harm the body of the organism, the coral, this is what’s happening.”

The reef, which stretches 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland coast, has been hit hard in recent years, with large sections decimated by highly-publicised coral bleaching as well as outbreaks of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish.

In response, the federal government earlier this month announced a $60 million plan to protect the famous maze of coral, including funds to combat the crown-of-thorns starfish, coral bleaching and examine ways to prevent polluted water from hitting the reef.

However, some scientists believe more needs to be done to ensure the survival of the reef like tackling global warming and reducing carbon emissions.

‘Bottle caps, toothbrushes’ to blame

Dr Joleah Lamb, from the Coral Reef Studies centre at James Cook University, said the damage plastics caused to reefs was likely due to waste items like old bottles and toothbrushes.

She said while researchers didn’t know exactly how the damage occurred, such items often harboured potentially harmful microorganisms.

“We don’t know the exact mechanisms, but plastics make ideal vessels for colonizing microscopic organisms that could trigger disease if they come into contact with corals,” said Dr Lamb, who examined reefs in Indonesia, Australia, Myanmar and Thailand as part of the new research.

“Plastic items such as those commonly made of polypropylene, such as bottle caps and toothbrushes, have been shown to become heavily inhabited by bacteria that are associated with a globally devastating group of coral diseases known as white syndromes.”

