‘Like an underwater bushfire:’ Shocking images as heatwave bleaches Ningaloo

Western Australia’s World Heritage Listed Ningaloo Reef is being hit by widespread coral bleaching and demands the strongest response from government, the Australian Marine Conservation Society said today.

Revealing freshly collected footage from divers, WA director Paul Gamblin said it was a heartbreaking moment for all who loved Ningaloo.

“To see beautiful coral reefs bleaching white at Ningaloo icons, including Turquoise Bay, Coral Bay and Bundegi, is just devastating,” he said.

“Bleaching at Ningaloo is not normal. It demands urgent action from government, not business-as-usual. Large areas of coral could die in the weeks ahead. This is a red-alert moment for Ningaloo.

“This marine heatwave is like an underwater bushfire raging along Western Australia’s coast, killing tens of thousands of fish that washed up on Pilbara beaches, and now it’s cooking Ningaloo, the jewel in the crown.”

There have been calls from environmental groups since the week before Christmas for the government to acknowledge and address the impacts of the marine heatwave.

Gamblin said there had been silence at the ministerial level.

“Surely, now that there is such widespread bleaching at Ningaloo, someone in government will step up,” he said.

“People in Exmouth are distressed by what they are witnessing, and they need and deserve a clear response from government. It’s also a stark reminder that coastal communities and their businesses, including the fishing industry and Ningaloo’s world-renowned tourism industry, rely on a healthy marine environment, and climate change poses an existential threat to them.”

He reiterated calls for the government to coordinate or fund a survey of bleaching status at Scott Reef and the Rowley Shoals in the north-west.

“Governments should be reducing pressure on our stressed marine environment, not piling it on,” he said.

“They should not even be contemplating industrial development at special places such as Exmouth Gulf, Ningaloo, and oil and gas drilling at Scott Reef.”

Mia Pepper, campaigns director at the Conservation Council of WA, said heating oceans were driven by a climate crisis caused by fossil fuel expansion.

“WA’s emissions continue to rise and the WA government continues to approve and expand gas production, flying in the face of climate science and warnings,” she said.

Environment and Climate Action Minister Reece Whitby said he knew the destructive impact climate change was having on Western Australia’s natural environment, with marine heatwaves an increasing risk to our coral reefs

He said he had requested an urgent briefing from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions on this matter to better understand the full extent of the damage and what could be done in response.

“Ningaloo is one of our State’s greatest natural wonders as well as one of our most iconic tourism destinations,” he said.

“It was a WA Labor government that championed and ultimately created Ningaloo Marine Park in the 1980s and it was a WA Labor government that expanded those protections in the early 2000s.

“Our government will always work hard to protect our environment, and I will always go above and beyond to protect one-of-a-kind oceanic wonders like Ningaloo.”

WAtoday reported just before Christmas on coral bleaching at two reefs near Broome amid spiking ocean temperatures.

In January, more than 30,000 fish washed up dead in the Pilbara, and three weeks ago the government’s fisheries staff identified the escalating marine heatwave as the likely cause.

On Friday, severe tropical Cyclone Zelia narrowly missed decimating the industry and homes of Port Hedland.

Professor Steve Turton, adjunct professor of environmental geography at the Central Queensland University, said the record-breaking sea surface temperatures offshore of more than 31 degrees were “feeding this monster, along with exceptionally favourable atmospheric conditions”.

Turton said the “rapid rate of intensification and the exceptionally warm ocean heat content” suggested aspects of this extreme weather event may be attributed to anthropogenic climate change.

Premier Roger Cook downplayed climate change’s link to Cyclone Zelia at his press conference that morning, saying “cyclones happen during cyclone season”.

A short time later, the Bureau of Meteorology’s general manager environmental prediction services Matthew Collopy said there was evidence climate change was impacting not cyclone frequency, but cyclone intensity, thanks to the warming of the atmosphere and oceans.

Scientists have warned for many years that even under conservative predicted climate trajectories – that is, warming of 1.5 degrees – 70-90 per cent of corals are predicted to die worldwide.

June 2024 was the 12th month in a row with global mean surface temperatures at least 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial conditions.

Two new international modelling studies published in Nature Climate Change suggested this may indicate the world has entered a multi-decadal period of 1.5 degrees average global warming, and stringent climate mitigation efforts are needed to keep the Paris Agreement goals within reach.

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