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The third global bleaching event took its toll on Western Australia's super-corals.

Australia's Other Great (and Threatened) Coral Reefs.

WA's SCOTT Reef has recovered from mass bleaching in 1998.

Sea sponge study sheds light on coral reefs.

Coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine systems. They are however, threatened by global change and we can only predict how it will impact these reef systems if we first understand how they work.

Coral reefs are the most diverse of all marine systems. They are however, threatened by global change and we can only predict how it will impact these reef systems if we first understand how they work.

Exmouth split over pipeline factory proposed for gulf that supports Ningaloo Reef.

Un récif corallien imprimé en 3D a été installé avec succès dans l'océan Indien.

Un requin s'approche d'une "boule" de poissons.

At 300 kilometres long, Ningaloo Reef is Australia's largest fringing coral reef. It's home to some amazing marine life like frisky whale sharks, nesting turtles and deep-sea fish.

Monitoring of reef restoration efforts and artificial reefs (ARs) has typically been limited to coral fragment survival, hampering evaluation of broader objectives such as ecosystem recovery. This study aimed to determine to what extent AR design influences the ecological recovery of restored reefs by monitoring outplanted coral fragments, benthic cover, coral recruitment and fish and invertebrate communities for two years. Four AR designs (16 m2), unrestored controls and natural reef patches as reference (n = 10) were established in Mkwiro, Kenya. ARs consisted either of concrete disks with bottles, layered concrete disks, metal cages or a combination thereof. A mixture of 18 branching coral species (mainly Acropora spp.) was outplanted on ARs at a density of 7 corals m-2. After two years, 60% of all outplanted fragments had survived, already resulting in coral cover on most ARs comparable (though Acropora-dominated) to reference patches. Coral survival differed between ARs, with highest survival on cages due to the absence of crown-of-thorns sea star predation on this design. In total, 32 coral genera recruited on ARs and recruit densities were highest on reference patches, moderate on concrete ARs and low on cages. ARs and reference patches featured nearly twice the fish species richness and around an order of magnitude higher fish abundance and biomass compared to control patches. Fish abundance and biomass strongly correlated with coral cover on ARs. AR, reference and control patches all had distinct fish species compositions, but AR and reference patches were similar in terms of trophic structure of their fish communities. Motile invertebrates including gastropods, sea urchins, sea cucumbers and sea stars were present at ARs, but generally more abundant and diverse at natural reference patches. Taken together, all studied ecological parameters progressed towards reef ecosystem recovery, with varying influences of AR design and material. We recommend a combinat

Thank you for not visiting: tourist hotspots that have done a Koh Tachai.

Read Blast fishing turning Tanzania's waters into 'killing fields' latest on ITV News.

Read Blast fishing turning Tanzania's waters into 'killing fields' latest on ITV News.

A WESTERN Australian first trial to return oysters to an Albany estuary is exceeding scientists' expectations, a year into the ambitious project.