A report in the Sydney Morning Herald had the following shocking story: "Half the Great Barrier Reef's coral has disappeared in the past 27 years and less than a quarter could be left within a decade unless action is taken, a landmark study has found.

"A long-term investigation of the reef by scientists at Townsville's Australian Institute of Marine Science found coral had been wiped out by intense tropical cyclones, a native species of starfish and coral bleaching."

Can Big Data help save the Great Barrier Reef?

This was one of the ideas floated at an event in Singapore on Tuesday (2 October) by Steve Leonard, Office of the chairman, EMC.

Going by the advances made in the field of Big Data, it would seem possible as far as help from Big Data-based monitoring technology is concerned.