The largest barrier reef in the world, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (GBR), extends for over 2,300 km and encompasses nearly 3,000 individual reef formations. An ecosystem of extraordinary diversity and beauty (Fig. 1A), it is a World Heritage Site that brings substantial resources to the Australian economy, including over 50,000 full-time jobs and A$5.5 billion annually (1). It is also widely considered the gold standard for coral reef management. Thus, the documentation by De’ath et al. (2) in PNAS that the substantial efforts by Australia to protect the GBR may not be adequate is cause for considerable alarm.