Coral reefs of Australia bleached by Deniz Heatwave

Australia boasts with many advantages when it comes to natural symbols. The major barrier, the world’s largest coral rock system on the northeast coast, is rightly considered as UNESCO World Heritage Site. Biodiversity buzzing, this is a diver dream.

However, on the other side of the country, there is a less known record -breaking on the northwest coast of Australia: Ningaloo Ref.

Ningaloo is unique, within a 14 -hour driving distance of Perth. Another of the world’s largest fringe reef and Australia’s UNESCO World Heritage fields is home to a lush ocean forest spreading along the beach for hundreds of kilometers.

You can enter the live turquoise water from the remote desert beaches of the region and start swimming in a sea view in a sea view that almost surrounded them with vibrant corals such as wildlife – manta rays, reef sharks and whale sharks.

But this year, Ningaloo found himself in trouble. The higher water temperatures hit by a sea heat wave emphasized corals and return to white in an effect known as ‘bleaching’. While some can heal, this is not given – and the damage surprises scientists.

Not only that, but also the heat wave is responsible for another, more worrying. This is the first time when the reefs on both Australia’s western and east coasts were bleached.

Paul Gamblin, who chaired the Australian Naval Protection Association, says, “This is like a severe underwater forest fire that has been damaged along the beach for months,” Paul Gamblin says. “It is definitely a destructive event and people are hanging from it. Very big. His wife has not been seen. It is absolutely not normal.”

The sea heat wave, which damaged Ningalooo, started in 2023 in the Caribbean. Later, he moved towards the Indo-Pacific, damaging the coral reefs on his way. In 2024, while the big barrier was reef bleaching, Ningaloo survived. However, at the end of last year and at the beginning of 2025 – Summit Summer – Western Australia began to rise temperatures.

Everything is part of the fourth global bleaching activity, where experts say that more than 80% of the world coral reefs.

Dr. Minderoo Foundation’s chief research scientist. Kate Quigley likens the effect of stomach error.

“Corals have this small algae symbiotic that allows them to perform biological processes in their cells instead of being bacteria in the human intestine.” When the water is too hot, this relationship breaks and bleach begins.

“So if there is a stomach error and the human body does not work in the same way, [it’s the] The same thing as coral, “he explains.” Hot water causes the biological processes in that coin to be haying. And just as people get sick, corals get sick. “

Dr Quigley, especially worried scientists see long -term heating. As the summit summer passed, they waited for the temperatures to fall until April. This did not happen this year.

“In previous warming events, water temperatures may have increased slightly and then have returned again, so that the corals can essentially heal – they may return.” “But what we’re really afraid of seeing, especially in the coming months, really high levels of death.”

While government scientists watch the reefs, there is still a lot they don’t know.

“The natural world is an incredibly variable place and sometimes we will be shocked by what we see, [because] Does not seem to follow the rules,

Dr Holmes and his team conduct follow -up surveys three to six months after bleaching to assess how many coins are dead.

“Absolutely have coral records [being] During this time, he is still in a bleached situation and still survives, “he says. So now we need to play a waiting game. “

Ningaloo attracts approximately 200,000 tourists every year. The damage is open for swimmers and divers.

“It was like swimming in a body,” he says, “A body was like swimming in a body,” he says. “He was very gray and lifeless.

There is an additional fear for the inhabitants: they will turn the tourists’ backs to Ningalooo.

“People are really devastated behind summer, and many people talk about how they cry in water, come out of the ocean,” says Sara Morgillo, who works with dive and protection from Perth.

“Here are the surprising parts of the reef are still worth seeing and we still do diving tours every day.”

“I think it’s really important to witness what is happening. [see] The effects of the sea heat wave we have. “

Scientists agree on what causes this heat wave: rising carbon emissions warm the planet and oceans. According to NASA, the ocean is the place where 90% of global warming took place – and the last decade has been the hottest since the 1800s. His last year The hottest in the record.

These more worrying advantages threaten Australia’s famous ground signs. But there is more growing problem in another house.

From the coast of Ningaloo, the North West Shelf Gas Factory, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel projects. In May, the Australian government announced that the company, which manages the project, will allow Woodsyide to operate until 2070.

The same company is more than the coast, trying to get approval to improve Australia’s largest unused gas reserves in the eye basin.

Although these projects alone do not create the heat that damages Ningaloo, the gas industry is a symbol of rival interests in Western Australia, where the economy fueled the economy much more than tourism.

“The great barrier Reef and Ningaloo, deep wonders, Antarctica or Serengeti or Amazon’s equivalent,” he says.

“Side -by -side is incomprehensible: Places such as Ningaloo are explicitly exposed to the consequences of climate change, the government should even think of opening new fossil fuel projects … It shouldn’t be and governments should make a clear commitment to draw a line in the sand and make it worse.”

While greater discussions continue to use fossil fuels, scientists are working to better understand the reefs.

Dr Chris Roelfsema of the University of Queensland and his team match Ningaloo by taking photos of the corals and connecting them with drone images. In this way, they can follow their health better.

“People ask me, what can we do? [supportive of] Renewable energies, “says Dr. Roelfsema.” Your game has a voice for politicians, so you can choose it. But you can take less, [use] Public transport, you don’t always have air conditioners – all of them can help reduce our footprint. “

There is also science in the laboratory. Dr Quigley and his team in Minderoo are selectively growing coral combinations to find out which species are the most tolerant of higher temperatures.

“We take these fertilized eggs from many different genetic backgrounds and raise them for a series of days, up to coral babies and coral youth.” “Just like butterflies, corals have different metamorphosis and stages.”

By testing these corals, researchers can assess which ones are more tolerant of higher temperatures. Then the idea is to put them back into the water.

Dr Quigley is doing this in a big barrier reef, Ningaloo, at a much earlier stage – and confesses that the method is not ideal.

“It would be very difficult to scal for all reefs in the world.” “It would make more sense to reach the main reason for this long -term livelihood of coral reefs.”

There is pressure to make more of the authorities, who are seen as a plaster that is only adhered by critics. This brings Dr. Quigley back to the forest fire analogy.

“Interestingly, when forest fires occur in Australia, the authorities are very fast – there are too many answers,” he says. “You don’t see this in the coral reefs in Australia.”

One of the reasons for this may be not humans, but corals are at risk. After all, there is no house on the way to underwater forest fire.

However, experts say that such an opinion is narrow -minded. Coral reefs are home to 25% of all marine life. But they also look at human life.

“With nature and diversity, they are definitely supported by super -charge and the smallest creatures to the largest,” Paul Gamblin says. “They also support the livelihood of millions of people all over the world and protect the storm fluctuations and excessive storm events that we see more with climate change. So they offer tremendous services to the planet.”

These services are usually forgotten by the services above the surface. But as fossil fuels continue to heat the planet, life in the oceans feel heat.