SYDNEY: An “unprecedented” mass bleaching event has been recorded off Australia’s western coast, scientists said on Wednesday (Mar 26), turning huge chunks of a celebrated reef system a sickly dull white.
A months-long marine heatwave had “cooked” the sprawling Ningaloo Reef, ocean scientist Kate Quigley said, part of a world heritage-listed marine park renowned for vibrant corals and migrating whale sharks.
Although environment officials were still verifying the scale of damage, data collected by Quigley and a team of scientists found it was on track to be the reef’s worst mass-bleaching event in years.
“Warm oceans have just cooked the corals this year,” Quigley told AFP.
“It wouldn’t be amiss to throw in the word ‘unprecedented’.
“It has gone deep, it’s not just the top of the reef that is bleaching. Many different species of coral are bleaching.”
Branching through shallow waters along Australia’s western coast, the 300km Ningaloo Reef is one of the largest “fringing reefs” in the world.
The unfolding mass bleaching looked to be the worst since 2011, Quigley said.
Ocean waters lapping Western Australia have been as much as three degrees warmer than average over recent summer months, the government weather bureau said.
Rising temperatures shot past the “bleaching threshold” sometime in mid-January, according to monitoring by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
