Devastating Impact on Wildlife in Exmouth
As the flooding caused by Tropical Cyclone Narelle's intense passage through Exmouth began to recede and winds diminished, local resident Brinkley Davies visited Graveyards beach. This beach, named by some Exmouth locals due to turtles frequently becoming trapped in the dunes, was transformed into a literal graveyard on Sunday morning. The shoreline was littered with thousands of baby turtles and turtle eggs, alongside deceased fish, sea snakes, dolphins, and seabirds.
“The sheer amount of animals was just disturbing. I’m a pretty positive person, but it was so bad. I just rescued whatever I could,” Davies said.
The Western Australian government reported similar scenes across hundreds of kilometres of beaches along the world heritage-listed Ningaloo coastline following Cyclone Narelle’s passage.
Photographer Brooke Pyke, based in Exmouth, also visited Graveyards beach and found the scene emotionally overwhelming.
“It’s hard to put into words actually,” she said. “It was pretty devastating. Harrowing.
My theory is that everything that needs to come to the surface to breathe would have faced pretty intense and exhausting conditions. We didn’t find any sharks or rays – maybe they could get a bit deeper.”
Davies, who earns a living as a free diver, occasional stunt double, tour guide, and photographer, is the founder of the Balu Blue Foundation, a conservation charity dedicated to caring for injured wildlife. Without a permanent facility, she took in more than 70 seabirds and other animals at her home and driveway in the days following the cyclone.
“Many of the birds were too far gone,” she said, “but alongside other volunteers more than 20 have been nursed back to health and released.”
She expressed hope that the event would highlight the need for a sustainable wildlife care facility in the region.
“I hope out of this, at least it shows we need a sustainable facility here [to care for wildlife]. It’s insane what we just went through,” Davies said.
“A lot of people have been saying this is just nature. But I think we’ve affected the climate so much that I don’t think this is just nature.”
Historic Storm Impact
Cyclone Narelle was notable as the first storm since Tropical Cyclone Ingrid in 2005 to make landfall as a severe system in three different Australian states and territories. Experts indicated that global heating likely contributed to the storm's intensification before its initial landfall.
After traversing thousands of kilometres over northern Australia, Narelle was a severe category four cyclone when it passed Exmouth, producing wind gusts of approximately 250 km/h.
Riley Carter, a wildlife officer at the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, reported that hundreds of shorebirds were found dead on beaches around Exmouth and the Ningaloo coast, with about 30 dead cetaceans recorded.
“We have had reports of dead turtles, dolphins, snakes and other wildlife across hundreds of kilometres of coastline,” Carter said.
He noted that there were immediate and significant animal welfare impacts. Helicopters were deployed to assess the situation, and veterinarians were on standby to euthanise animals if necessary.
There were some encouraging signs, including the observation of 19 fresh turtle tracks since the cyclone passed.
Concerns for Coral Reefs
The cyclone's trajectory took it directly over northern sections of the Ningaloo coastline and its coral reefs. This area had suffered severe damage the previous year due to an unprecedented marine heatwave that caused the worst recorded mass coral bleaching event over more than 1,000 kilometres of the Western Australian coastline.
Dr James Gilmour, a senior research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, explained that cyclones can smother corals with sediment, increasing their vulnerability to disease.
The widespread death of aquatic plants and animals also raises the risk of algal blooms, which can further harm coral ecosystems.
“Entire sections of reef can be lifted and corals can be scarred and literally sandblasted or buried under rubble. There’s a lot of direct and indirect pressures they’ve faced,” he said.
The timing of Narelle’s arrival coincided with the corals’ spawning season. Corals invest significant energy over several months to produce spawn, and during this time their energy reserves are low, reducing their capacity to remove sediment.
“Corals invest a considerable amount of energy in the production of their spawn and that happens over several months.
The corals will be very low on energy and so having the energy for the polyps to remove the sediment is much lower,” he said.
Gilmour noted that any Ningaloo corals that survived the mass bleaching last year had been weakened, and some of these survivors may have perished following the cyclone.
“[Narelle] is another mortality event and that of course makes us worry,” he said.
“We are becoming concerned about the windows of recovery. You need five or 10 years and we worry greatly how many of these windows will remain.”
