US EditionMarine Heat Wave Forecasts Help Predict Coral Bleaching, Fish Kills and Algal Blooms
WESTERN AUSTRALIA, AUG 11 – Coral bleaching affected up to 90% of some reefs including World Heritage sites due to record heatwaves and climate change, scientists report widespread reef mortality in Western Australia.
- On August 12, 2025, the Australian Institute of Marine Science confirmed the most widespread coral bleaching on record for tropical reef ecosystems off WA, marking a new extreme in regional damage.
- Australian sea surface temperature data shows last summer was the warmest since records began, and Spillman warned climate change shortens reef recovery times, causing bleaching.
- In the Rowley Shoals, Mermaid and Clerke reefs recorded 61 per cent to 90 per cent mortality, with some sites experiencing 90 per cent bleaching or dead coral.
- Facing pressure, the Conservation Council of WA warns that Woodside’s Browse Basin project would unlock 1.6 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases, nearly 20 times WA’s emissions, with only 27 per cent of energy from renewables.
- Ahead of the September climate goals release, this event continues the fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event that began in 2023 and circumnavigated oceans.
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Due to the sea heat wave corals bleach out over a length of 1500 kilometres and can hardly recover.
Record-breaking coral bleaching decimates WA’s Ningaloo coral reef
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Marine heatwave decimates Western Australia's coral reefs
Last summer's marine heat wave was the longest, largest, and most intense on record for Western Australia, according to a new report, resulting in unprecedented bleaching across the state's reefs. Scientists are concerned that it's the first time two World Heritage reefs on opposite sides of Australia were bleaching simultaneously. The full impact of the coral bleaching will take months to be fully known.
Marine heat wave forecasts help predict coral bleaching, fish kills and algal blooms
Just as the 2019–20 summer is remembered for devastating bushfires, the summer of 2024–25 is likely to be remembered for Australia-wide marine biological disruption associated with marine heat waves.
In Australia, previously spared areas are now also affected by coral bleaching: a sea-heat wave has severely damaged the reefs on the west coast on an area of 1,500 kilometres long, researchers warn.
Between 15 and 30 percent of the state's reefs may have been destroyed by the extreme ocean heat wave that lasted from August last year to May this year.
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