“The corals are really looking spectacular since the bleaching events of 2016 and 2017,” he said.
Mr Ireland said the variety of hard and soft corals releasing eggs and sperm into the water was astounding.
“There was coral spawn everywhere last night. It was like a grey haze with beautiful pink bundles going up – it was a magical night,” he said.
“Stuart and I have been filming the spawning as a team for five years and this is the best I’ve seen. It’s a testament of how resilient the Great Barrier Reef really is.
“We expect to see more pressures in the future, but the Great Barrier Reef’s size, complexity and huge biodiversity makes it a very strong ecosystem.
“We need to nurture the reef through collaboration between tourism operators such as Sunlover, film makers like Stuart from Calypso, and reef research and educators like myself at Reef Teach.
“The reef has shown us that she is not lying down, she is doing extremely well and fighting for the future.”
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