In March 2022 a series of environmental conditions coincided with a coral spawning event that resulted in the death of many fish and corals in Bills Bay.
If you want to do a deep dive on the event, a Curtain University study has been published in the Journal of Coral Reefs. The headline numbers make grim reading.
Coral cover in the Bay decreased from 70.44 ± 5.24% in 2021 to 1.16 ± 0.51% in 2022 and a measure of the number of types of coral in Bills Bay dropped by 84%.
But don’t cancel your trip to Coral Bay. The affected area only extends 900m from Bills Nearby Five Fingers Reef and the reef along Paradise Beach were largely unaffected.
These reefs are expected to be the source of recovery for the reef in Bills Bay. A similarly devasting event took place in 1989 under similar circumstances and the reef was able to recover.
Source: Springer Link 5 March 2024
