Last month’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) annual count revealed that the Great Barrier Reef had gained 200,000 square kilometers of territory in 24 months — the largest increase in its estimated span of existence since records began in 1900. This month, the reef’s inhabitants are to capture a moment of biology for posterity — the longest spawning event since the reef’s origins nearly 200 million years ago.
Scientists and underwater enthusiasts will gather near Douglas Island in the middle of the reef to watch the spawning events of the Black Perch and Goliath Shad fish and the Racehorse eel, which give birth to pink and brown eggs — free-swimming and completely unwieldy. If all goes well, between 5,000 and 10,000 eels will emerge from these sexually mature and 500 to 1,000 pregnant female fish will increase the number of eggs that hatch into larvae and gnats and caterpillars.
The video above explains how such an event occurs, and how the great ocean may inspire more than just researchers from afar.
Read the full story at The Guardian.
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