Ocean waters lapping Western Australia have been as much as three degrees warmer than average over recent summer months.
Sydney:An "unprecedented" mass bleaching event has been recorded off Australia's western coast, scientists said Wednesday, 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 UNESCO 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."
The episode is part of an ongoing, fourth global coral bleaching event that began in 2023.
"From 1 January 2023 to 20 March 2025, bleaching-level heat stress has impacted 83.6 percent of the world's reef areas", Derek Manzello of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) told AFP, with 81 countries or territories impacted.
"The bleaching in Western Australia is particularly concerning, based on the initial information we've received from colleagues documenting the impacts, coupled with the severity of the ongoing heat stress."
Not A Death Sentence, Yet
Branching through shallow waters along Australia's western coast, the 300-kilometre (185-mile) Ningaloo Reef is one of the largest "fringing reefs" in the world.
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