Coral Reef Diagnostics

N. GBR - Pink (AUWL28)

Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation — Global Reef Expedition
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Part of the regional summaries: Australia (GBR) - Far North: Pink stations (Preservation Zone reefs) and Australia (GBR)

05
Coral Health Index: TBD
Country
Australia
Survey date(s)
2014-09-07
Coordinates
-15.3670, 145.6200
Coral cover
3.4%
Benthic transects+photo-quadrats
Observations
not yet tagged for this site
Heat stress
Today’s heat load
24.8°C0.0°C-weeks
3 Oct 2026 · No heat stress
5-year thermal stress load
5-year mean max. degree heating weeks (DHW)
7.8°C-weeksi
2021–2025
NOAA Coral Reef Watch — Northern GBR virtual station
i 5-year mean max. DHW is the mean of the annual maximum DHWs over the five complete years named above, not conditions today.
More infoNorthern GBR (NOAA CRW virtual station)
Survey depth (expedition team)
6.6 m
Living Oceans Foundation (LOF) benthic survey depth; no dive by Anderson at this station
Sea surface temp. (satellite)
24.5°C
satellite sea surface temperature (SST) on the survey date (NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Northern GBR), not an in-water reading; it is the warmest-pixel (90th percentile) reading in the station area and can run 1–1.5°C above the reef

Two other CRD dive sites within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.

🗺 Detailed map of the Global Reef Expedition dive sites, Lark, Williamson, and unnamed reef 15-043, northern Great Barrier Reef (Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation; opens in a new window)

Site description

Setting

Global Reef Expedition station AUWL28, northern Great Barrier Reef (-15.3670, 145.6200), surveyed on 7 September 2014. This site sits in a Preservation (Pink) Zone, the Marine Park's strictest protection tier, where entry is restricted. The expedition's own site table classifies AUWL28 as a sheltered mid shelf reef on an exposed aspect.

General benthic features

Alongside the hard coral already reported for this site, the same transects recorded 7.0% crustose coralline algae, 32% turf, and 23% macroalgae. Non-living substrate came to 0.4% dead coral, 4.2% rubble, and 13% sand. These figures come from the expedition's own 933-site benthic master and are survey results, not photographic estimates.

Fish and other fauna

Paired fish transects recorded about 14 fish species per transect and about 4.4 kg per 100 m2 of biomass.

Comparisons with other data

No prior survey data from this site. If you would like to share yours, please email us.

Data & links

Data are from the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation Global Reef Expedition and Coral Reef Diagnostics.

© Coral Reef Diagnostics.