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Halfway up the coast of Western Australia, American tourists Emily Wapman and Evan Risucci are riding a gentle current off Turquoise Bay, one of the country’s most remote and beautiful beaches.
It’s called drift snorkeling, and the water’s guiding them over Ningaloo, one of the world’s longest near-shore reefs, revealing coral that’s as white as the sand on the sea floor — drained of color by the stress of a severe and prolonged marine heatwave.
The Californians met in December on a dating app and are now touring Australia in an aging four-wheel drive they bought online and equipped for adventure.
Risucci, a filmmaker, admits he knows little about coral but is learning a lot from his travel companion. “I thought that the white coral was the live coral,” he said, squinting in the harsh Australian sun.
“It’d be good for tourists to know what’s actually happening,” he said. “Someone from the United States might come here and think, ‘wow, this is so pretty,’ and be completely oblivious to the fact that it’s all dead.”
It’s not all dead, molecular ecologist Kate Quigley told CNN from a boat bobbing above Tantabiddi Sanctuary Zone, a popular destination for local tour boats within Ningaloo Marine Park off the West Australian coast. Ningaloo Reef is sick, like many coral reefs around the world.
Read more at the link in @cnnclimate’s bio. #calltoearth
📸: Nush Freedman for CNN
