The environment watchdog has warned that Woodside Energy's plan to develop a gasfield off Western Australia's coast could damage coral reefs and wildlife. Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern will lecture at the University of Sydney from this week. The Australian Signals Directorate has warned that some online services may go offline unexpectedly. Other stories include a Queensland funding cut to a community legal centre, a body found in floodwaters and Brazil's presidential election result.
Woodside Energy's plan to drill for gas off Western Australia's north-west coast could significantly damage coral reefs and endangered turtles, according to a draft letter from the state's environmental watchdog. The letter, written in 2023 and seen by the Guardian, said the company's protections for turtles and blue whales near Scott Reef would be ineffective. In February 2024, the watchdog told Woodside it planned to reject the project. Woodside has since added shear rams to its drilling plans, a step it says would limit the length of any well blowout.
Almost every shallow-water coral reef on the planet, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, faces a high risk of ecosystem collapse before 2075 because of global heating, a United Nations nature assessment says. About 24 per cent of reefs across more than 80 countries are already critically endangered, rising to 96 per cent once expected heating impacts are included. Scientists say the findings are a wake-up call, as reefs could survive with rapid cuts to fossil fuel use and strong local conservation action. Dr Mishal Gudka said the risk was real and very concerning.
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Egypt's Red Sea corals, long considered unusually heat-resistant, suffered bleaching during heat waves in 2023 and 2024. A survey led by marine biologist Mahmoud Hanafy found that less than a tenth of colonies in northern areas were affected, while further south bleaching affected half. Scientists debate whether evolutionary history or water circulation explains the reefs' resilience, and whether that protection will hold. Preliminary estimates show recovery rates of 75 to 88 percent a year after the event. Hanafy says reducing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases is the key long-term solution.
A new study suggests that rat-free islands with plenty of seabirds have reefs that grow about twice as fast as those on rat-infested islands. Researchers say this growth could closely keep pace with predicted sea-level rises to the end of the century under a 2 degree Celsius warming scenario. The study did not directly compare restoration before and after, and its authors say it does not offer a complete solution to global warming. Researchers note that restoration can help developed atolls but will not replace the need for engineering solutions.
Corals across the Indo-Pacific region release around 3.5 quintillion eggs in a single spawning event, according to new research published in Ecology and Evolution. The estimate is the first of its kind for the region, which is a hotspot for marine biodiversity. Branching Acropora, Porites and Montipora corals account for about half of the total egg supply. The researchers say the figure sets a baseline for reef reproductive capacity, which matters because roughly half of global coral reef cover has disappeared since 1950. Reproduction is key to reef recovery after severe marine heatwaves.
