General News
15 July, 2025
Island coral wipeout
DRONE surveys show coral was practically wiped out near Queensland’s Lizard Island last year and scientists say repeated bleaching from a warming ocean gives it little long-term chance of survival.
James Cook University remote sensing associate professor Karen Joyce, who was part of the team that surveyed the reef, said advanced drones were used to collect high-resolution imagery of the reefs in March and June 2024.
“We then analysed 20 sections, each measuring 10m x 10m, across the northern and southern reefs of Lizard Island. The average bleaching mortality rate reached was 92 per cent, with bleaching affecting an average of 96 per cent of living corals of the surveyed areas,” Dr Joyce said. “This is one of the highest rates of bleaching mortality ever recorded, despite corals at Lizard Island being exposed to lower levels of cumulative heat stress than others in many parts of the Great Barrier Reef during this bleaching event.”
Lead author Dr Vincent Raoult from Griffith University’s School of Environment and Science said the mortality rate was unprecedented and highlighted the fragility of coral ecosystems facing increasing stress from climate change.
