<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/07/wa-coral-unprecedented-bleaching-event-ningaloo-reef>
"The Rowley Shoals are on many a diver’s bucket list. The three coral atolls,
hundreds of kilometres off the Western Australian coastline, are teeming with
pristine coral gardens that for a long time, unlike many of the world’s reefs,
had escaped the ravages of global heating.
“I’ve seen a fair bit of death and destruction, but Rowley Shoals was always
the place that was still standing,” says Dr James Gilmour, a research scientist
at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
“Just the sheer abundance of life is incredible. It was our hope spot. It’s the
reef I love more than any other. So this was super emotional.”
Starting in August 2024, an unprecedented heatwave has swept across Western
Australia’s reefs, turning corals white from the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo
all the way to Ashmore Reef, about 1,500km north-east.
Now, teams of government scientists are reporting widespread coral death, which
they say is the worst bleaching to hit the state. There are still areas of live
coral, and some bleached coral will recover, but as scientists gather data, the
scale of mortality has left many shocked.
At Rowley Shoals, Gilmour, who has been researching corals for 30 years, says a
visit in mid-April presented a devastating and confronting scene.
“It was several weeks after the peak heat stress. Some corals were still
bleached white, but most had died. We saw that over vast areas,” he says.
“The structure is still there but they’re now all covered in algae. Everywhere
was dead coral skeletons.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
