More than half of remote reefs in Coral Sea marine park suffered extreme bleaching

Exclusive: researchers found some areas outside the bounds of the Great Barrier Reef had 90% of their shallow water corals bleached this summer

More than half of the spectacular and remote coral reefs beyond the boundaries of the Great Barrier Reef suffered severe bleaching this summer, an underwater scientific expedition has found.

Several reefs in the vast Coral Sea marine park known among divers for their arrays of corals, large fish and precipitous drop offs into the deep ocean suffered extreme bleaching.