Depleting fish populations and corals that are still bleaching in the winter paint a bleak picture for parts of the Great Barrier Reef, which is undergoing a “complete ecosystem collapse,” scientists say. For a week, Coral Watch chief investigator Justin Marshall surveyed the reefs around Lizard Island in Queensland, according to the Guardian. He said many of the fish species commonly spotted around the coral had completely disappeared.A declining population of fish was a major indication that the ecosystem had collapsed. When corals die, they become covered with algae, which cuts fish off from the sources of shelter and food that they need, according to Coral Watch. Without these resources, the fish either die out or move elsewhere.
