{"id":144885,"date":"2025-11-20T15:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/144885\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:19:08","slug":"deathly-silent-two-out-of-three-corals-in-world-heritage-listed-ningaloo-reef-have-been-killed-scientists-confirm-ningaloo-reef","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/144885\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Deathly silent\u2019: two out of three corals in world heritage-listed Ningaloo reef have been killed, scientists confirm | Ningaloo reef"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost two out of three corals across popular tourism spots at the world heritage-listed Ningaloo reef died after an unprecedented marine heatwave hit the Western Australia<\/a> region, scientists have said.<\/p>\n

The areas in Ningaloo\u2019s northern lagoon had undergone a \u201cprofound ecological simplification\u201d with coral species that were keystones to the habitat among those killed.<\/p>\n

The marine heatwave swept across the Western Australian coastline last summer and autumn, turning corals white from heat stress from Ningaloo to Ashmore reef<\/a> 1,500km to the north-east.<\/p>\n

When corals sit in unusually warm water for too long they separate from the algae that give them much of their colour and nutrients, leaving behind a translucent flesh revealing the white skeleton behind.<\/p>\n

About 90% of the extra heat on the planet<\/a> has been taken up by the ocean. The heating is caused when greenhouse gases are released from burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests.<\/p>\n

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton\u2019s Clear Air column as a free newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

Coral scientist Zoe Richards, an associate professor at Curtin University, had in March surveyed 1,600 individual corals at eight sites spanning 40km when the bleaching event was peaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bleaching was so confronting because it was so expansive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other scientists who visited Ningaloo during the mass coral bleaching spoke of their shock<\/a> at the extent of the heat and the suffering of the corals.<\/p>\n

Before and after images of coral bleaching on the Ningaloo reef<\/a><\/p>\n

When Richards, who carried out the work in partnership with the Minderoo Exmouth Research Laboratory, returned with Curtin University researcher David Juszkiewicz at the end of October, about 1,000 of the 1,600 corals she had recorded had died.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cYou go in hoping the corals you saw that were partially bleached might have recovered. Unfortunately the scale tipped to mortality. Most of the data is showing that any coral that bleached in March went on to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Incredible places\u2019<\/p>\n

The areas surveyed were between the Osprey and Tantabiddi sanctuary zones and cover the northern parts of the Ningaloo lagoon that are popular with tourists, Richards said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re incredible places where you can swim right off the beach and see all this luxurious coral,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Before and after images of coral bleaching on the Ningaloo reef<\/a><\/p>\n

Diving and snorkelling on these reefs, Richards said, was usually accompanied with \u201clots of popping and cracking\u201d sounds of fish and other animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was deathly silent,\u201d she said. \u201cThe only animals that looked happy were the sea cucumbers. They are the detritus-eaters.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Corals in the neighbouring Exmouth Gulf had fared much better, Richards said, but the northern Ningaloo areas surveyed had experienced a \u201cprofound ecological simplification\u201d with a \u201cmarked loss of biodiversity and reduction in habitat complexity\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before and after images of coral bleaching on the Ningaloo reef<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some resilient corals out there but it\u2019s only a small fraction of the diversity that was there before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese corals were providing habitat for the fish and the crabs and the molluscs that live amongst them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is ecological extinction of corals but what other co-extinctions might be happening at the same time? We don\u2019t have data on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourth mass bleaching<\/p>\n

The loss of corals at Ningaloo was part of the fourth and worst global mass bleaching event on record that exposed more than 80% of reefs in more than 80 countries to temperatures high enough to cause bleaching.<\/p>\n

Some scientists have claimed global heating has already pushed tropical coral reefs to a tipping point<\/a> of long-term decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorals act like thermometers for the ocean,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they bleach, they are sending out a clear signal that the temperature is too high. They don\u2019t talk, but they are signalling to us very clearly. We\u2019re on the brink of catastrophic ecosystem decline. This happening everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just really depressing. I have devoted my whole life to coral research. I am starting to visualise the point where all we have left of corals and reefs is memories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zoe Richards and David Juszkiewicz inspect coral bleaching in the Tantabiddi sanctuary. Photograph: Vee Brosig\/Blue Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost two out of three corals across popular tourism spots at the world heritage-listed Ningaloo reef died after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-144885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}