Coral bleaching in the Torres Strait. (Credit: Terry Hughes)
A professor at James Cook University has recently made multiple research flights around the Great Barrier Reef, according to The Guardian. In each one, mostly centered around the reef’s northern regions, the scientist captured images of historically bad coral bleaching.
The flights began around Cairns, a city in Australia near the great reef, and went north while the researcher used a camera to capture images of the corals below. After surveying more than 600 kilometers of reef on the first day, the images revealed that the areas surveyed were corals bleached about 60 percent.
Two more days of imaging revealed similar results, as bleached areas of coral continued to come into view. The trend continued through the end of the trip, which covered more than 430 reefs.
Top image: Coral bleaching in the Torres Strait. (Credit: Terry Hughes)