Winners 2021

The image held by a diver shows what was once a healthy thriving coral reef that has since died during recent coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef. The images were taken in the same location on Opal Reef near Port Douglas.

Opal Reef was thriving when it was photographed by Taylor Simpkins on 6 October 2015 in the foreground image. By 31 May 2019, the corals in the same area had bleached, died and become overgrown with algae as a result of the 2016 and 2017 mass coral bleaching events on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. A further decline in coral health was observed during another bleaching event in 2020. Although sections of the reef are still thriving, the overall outlook for this site was recently downgraded to “critical” in the latest assessment cycle by the IUCN due to climate change impacts.