After taking off from Brisbane just after dawn, our tiny propeller plane skims miles of Queensland coastline before heading north out over the crystal-clear waters of the Coral Sea –— revealing the beauty of this vast reef system beneath its surface.
Our destination is Lady Elliot Island, a remote coral cay perched on top of the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef.
Pilot Peter Gash is the island’s leaseholder, and his family has been operating tours to the island for nearly 20 years.
«We made it our life’s work,» Gash said. «My wife and I married, I went and learned to fly airplanes so I could bring people here.»
Gash negotiates his small aircraft through bumpy crosswinds to land safely on the short, grass-covered runway.
Decades ago, the island was a barren landscape devoid of vegetation following years of mining for nutrient-rich seabird waste — known as guano — in the late 1800s.
The Gash family set about bringing this island back to life, planting around 10,000 native species of trees to create a man-made forest and nature reserve, and using solar power, batteries and a water desalination system to support a small eco-tourism resort.
The island is now home to up to 200,000 sea birds, which have helped to regenerate the coral reef fringing the island.
«If we can recover this small place, this little circle, we can recover this big place — this whole planet,» Gash said. «That’s what really drives me, is to try and encourage people to know that it’s not hopeless, it can be done.»
Gash takes CNN on a snorkel tour, diving down to explore the underwater rainforest in his backyard. The vibrant coral colonies burst with color and teem with hundreds of species including manta rays, reef sharks, clown fish and turtles.
When the island’s greatest enthusiast resurfaces to draw a breath, even he can’t hide his shock at the extent of the coral bleaching.
«It’s worse than I thought it would be,» Gash said, as he treaded water on the surface. «I just pray the corals will come back next year.»
‘Silent as a graveyard’
Beyond the Great Barrier Reef, the massive marine heatwave sweeping the globe has already impacted some of the world’s most famous coral reefs — including those in the Red Sea, tripscan Indonesia and the Seychelles.
Last year, the soaring ocean temperatures also caused widespread destruction of corals in the Caribbean and Florida — and US experts are predicting further damage there this coming summer.
«I am becoming increasingly concerned about the 2024 summer for the wider Caribbean and Florida,» said Derek Manzello, the coordinator for NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program.
«It won’t take much additional seasonal warming to push temperatures past the bleaching threshold.»
In video released by his office, Modi can be seen 
