Kelp Forests in Western Australia wiped out by marine heatwave

Great swathes of the temperate kelp forests on Western Australia’s reefs that underpin tourism and fisheries industries worth $10 billion annually are gone.

Key points:

• The ocean off Western Australia is warming twice as fast as the global average
• Since 2000, nearly 1000 square kilometres of kelp forest have been lost from the area
• These “forests of the sea” underpin tourism and fisheries worth $10 billion per year

And the demise of these remarkable “forests of the sea” is likely permanent, researchers say in a study published today. “Off the coast around Kalbarri to Geraldton, where these reefs used to be dominated by kelp forests, those forests have completely disappeared,” researcher Dr Scott Bennett, now based at the Spanish National Research Council, said. “A lot of the [temperate] fish and invertebrates have disappeared and we’ve seen these communities shift to something that resembles the tropical fish and seaweed communities we would find at Ningaloo.” Associate Professor Thomas Wernberg, from the University of Western Australia, who helped lead the research with Dr Bennett, described the kelp forests as the “biological engine” of the Great Southern Reef. Click here to read more