‘It was our hope spot’: scientists heartbroken as pristine coral gardens hit by Western Australia’s worst bleaching event
Usually alive with colour and fish, Ningaloo reef and the Rowley Shoals now look as though they are ‘painted white’ as temperatures rise
The Rowley Shoals are on many a diver’s bucket list. The three coral atolls, hundreds of kilometres off the Western Australian coastline, are teeming with pristine coral gardens that for a long time, unlike many of the world’s reefs, had escaped the ravages of global heating.
“I’ve seen a fair bit of death and destruction, but Rowley Shoals was always the place that was still standing,” says Dr James Gilmour, a research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
“Just the sheer abundance of life is incredible. It was our hope spot. It’s the reef I love more than any other. So this was super emotional.”
Starting in August 2024, an unprecedented heatwave has swept across Western Australia’s reefs, turning corals white from the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo all the way to Ashmore Reef, about 1,500km north-east.
