“Scientists have found some remarkably heat-resistant corals near the Houtman Abrolhos archipelago off Western Australia. During an extreme 2025 marine heatwave and in lab tests, the corals showed little bleaching or mortality at temperatures that are typically deadly to coral. The researchers are still trying to explain the source of that resilience,” reports The Doomslayer.
New Scientist explains:
Coral reefs on a chain of islands off Western Australia were almost untouched by a prolonged heatwave that devastated corals in other regions in early 2025. Researchers hope that learning the secret of extreme heat tolerance in these corals will help to protect reefs across the globe…
Further north at the Ningaloo Reef, up to 60 per cent of corals died during the same heatwave….Prolonged heat stress generally leads to coral bleaching, when corals expel the symbiotic algae that live in their tissues, which provide most of their food.
To try to determine just how heat-tolerant the coral at the Houtman Abrolhos Islands actually are, the scientists brought colonies from several species back to the lab and subjected them to prolonged high temperatures….survival rates were twice as high and bleaching resistance was nearly four times higher. There was still nearly 100 per cent survival [during high temperature weeks].
The next step for the researchers is to work out exactly how the corals are achieving this survival feat.
A study found that corals recover faster on artificial structures than on natural reefs.
The world’s coral reefs are more plentiful than previously thought. “High-resolution satellite maps show that coral reefs cover an area of ocean larger than New Mexico,” reported Bloomberg News. That’s about twice the size of some prior estimates.
A very healthy coral reef is nestled among offshore oil platforms. A multivitamin could save some coral reefs.
