By David J Winstone
Does anyone have any up to date information regarding Lady Elliot Island 2024 coral bleaching? It is at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
We live near the GBR but have been totally spoiled by snorkeling tours to Raja Amat, and Alor and Komodo, witnessing phenomenal coral. Together with friends from the UK we were planning to re-visit Lady Elliot Island, which we were advised had been spared recent coral bleaching episodes. However an article in July-August 2024 Australian Geographic, a reputable magazine, claims very high bleaching (61-90%).
Does anyone have any first hand experience in 2024 snorkeling at Lady Elliot and Heron Islands?
Hi David, we have a recent post by Cristina about snorkeling Lady Elliot Island in 2023. She did mention that it had been bleached over this past summer.
Hi guys. Yes. I had seen the comment by Cristina. Thanks.
We were there at the beginning of February 2024 and while it looked like it had recovered from 2023, another bleaching event was starting up. I’m also interested to hear how the reef is faring.
We were at Lady Elliot in April 2024 and noticed what we considered to be significant bleaching of several types corals. Dive staff did not really want to acknowledge the problem but when pushed said it was fairly recent and they were hopeful the coral would recover. Still beautiful snorkeling though, and healthier than many reefs.
We just got back from snorkeling Lady Elliot in September 2024. Although the reef did experience quite extensive bleaching (> 60%) in late summer (March/April 2024) it had almost fully recovered as of a month ago The reef was in great shape and we would not have known there had been any bleaching if the biologist on the island hadn’t told us it occurred 5 months earlier. We wouldn’t hesitate to go back if that is any indication.