Australia's Great Barrier Reef gets "D" in health report

Australia's Great Barrier Reef is extremely sick, a government report has found.

The latest Great Barrier Reef 2015 Report Card by the federal governments had painted a bleak picture on its overall health by scoring it a "D" for the fifth year in a row.

The findings from the report which was published on Thursday revealed that the overall condition of the reef remained poor, although its coral quality had improved marginally.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia spokesman Sean Hobbin told Xinhua that it was high time the government had adopted the recommendations that had been put forward by independent bodies on what should be done to save the reef from further damage.

"We feel that the government should invest more to help save the reef, the current 1 billion Australian dollar (770 million U.S. dollar) set aside for this is not enough," Hobbin said.

He said instead the government should up the ante and allocate an 8 billion Australian dollars (6.13 billion U.S. dollars) budget that would ensure the reef remains safe and healthy as per recommendation by independent bodies.

The 2015 results were based on data collected before this year's climate change bleaching event that killed about a fifth of the reef's corals, suggesting that next year's reef report card would not be any better.

At present the health report card measures the progress towards water pollution targets, as well as the overall health of the Great Barrier Reef's ecosystems, including coral and seagrass.

The report added that the findings would be presented to UNESCO's World Heritage Commission in December for further review. Endit