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Summary
- Nearly all corals at Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef are dead, with 97% of the reef affected by mass bleaching due to rising sea surface temperatures.
- The global coral bleaching event is the fourth of its kind, directly linked to warming seas and exacerbated by human activities.
- Coral reefs are crucial ecosystems that support marine biodiversity and provide ecosystem services valued at $9.9 trillion annually.
- The Great Barrier Reef has experienced multiple severe bleaching events, leading to the death of 50% of the reef in recent years.
“This is not pretty but I will not apologise for the data. Suck up the discomfort. When is enough enough?” said one of the scientists behind the discovery.
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Nearly all corals on a reef at Lizard Island in Australia are dead following one of the worst mass bleaching events the world’s largest coral reef system has ever endured, new drone imagery has revealed.
Scientists from Macquarie University, James Cook University, and GeoNadir first mapped the area around Lizard Island in March 2024 and repeated the survey this month. The imagery they collected revealed that at least 97% of the reef had died amid record-breaking sea surface temperatures.
“This is not pretty but I will not apologise for the data. Suck up the discomfort. When is enough enough?” Dr. Karen Joyce, one of the scientists behind the discovery, wrote on X.
In April, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) – a partnership of 101 international nations and countries to perverse reefs around the world – confirmed that the world is undergoing its fourth global coral bleaching event, the second in the past ten years.
