‘Tourists ask a lot of questions’: Great Barrier Reef guides face up to bleaching tragedy

The Great Barrier Reef in Queensland experienced its fifth mass coral bleaching event in eight years this summer. Photograph: Amy Lawson

“You can see it on their faces,” says scuba diving instructor Elliot Peters. “There’s definitely some remorse and sadness.”

Peters works at a resort on Heron Island in the southern part of the Great Barrier Reef and, in recent weeks, he’s had to tell curious guests why so many of the corals around the island are turning bone white.