Norfolk Island’s unique corals under triple threat from disease, El Niño and now government-approved dredging

The brief

Scientists fear unique corals that fringe Australia’s remote Norfolk Island could disappear because of a triple threat of disease, El Niño and a federal government plan to dredge a neighbouring shipping channel. A failure to manage sediment and pollution washing into bays from cattle farming, cleared land along with wastewater has been blamed for widespread disease and outbreaks of algae over the corals. One expert said most of the island’s corals were likely to be species that have not been formally described by science, and would be unlikely to recover if lost. “We could rapidly lose the coral reefs and we won’t get them back,” said Prof Bill Leggat, a…