‘Harrowing’: Cyclone Narelle leaves graveyard of turtles, dolphins and seabirds in Western Australia | Tropical Cyclone Narelle

As the flooding from Tropical Cyclone Narelle’s powerful visit to Exmouth receded and winds eased, Brinkley Davies headed for Graveyards beach.

According to at least some Exmouth locals, the beach is named after turtles’ tendency to get stuck in the dunes.

But on Sunday morning, this strip of sand in remote Western Australia had turned into a veritable graveyard filled with thousands of baby turtles and turtle eggs, as well as dead fish, sea snakes, dolphins and seabirds.

“The sheer number of animals was disturbing. I’m a pretty positive person but the situation was so bad. I saved what I could,” Davies said.

The state government said similar scenes had played out on hundreds of kilometers of beaches along the world heritage-listed Ningaloo coastline since Narelle passed.

Exmouth-based photographer Brooke Pyke also went to the Cemeteries and fought back her emotions as she described the scene.

“It’s actually hard to put into words,” he said. “It was pretty devastating. It’s sad.”

“My theory is that anything that needs to come to the surface to breathe would face pretty intense and exhausting conditions. We didn’t find any sharks or rays; maybe they could dig a little deeper.”

Davies, who makes his living as a freediver, occasional stuntman, tour guide and photographer, is the founder of the Balu Blue Foundation conservation charity, which cares for injured wildlife.

But since there was no permanent building, Davies welcomed more than 70 seabirds and other animals into his home and driveway in the days after the hurricane.

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He said many of the birds were “too far gone” but, with other volunteers, more than 20 were nursed back to health and released.

“I hope this at least shows that we need a sustainable facility here. [to care for wildlife]. It’s crazy what we just experienced,” Davies said.

“A lot of people say it’s just nature. But I think we’ve affected the climate so much that I don’t think it’s just nature.”

historical storm

Hurricane Narelle was the first storm to make landfall as a severe system in three different states and territories since Tropical Hurricane Ingrid in 2005.

Climate experts said global warming likely helped the storm intensify before it first made landfall.

Having traveled thousands of kilometers across northern Australia, the storm became a severe category four system as it passed Exmouth, generating winds of around 250 km per hour.

Riley Carter, wildlife officer at the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, said hundreds of shorebirds were found dead on beaches around Exmouth and the Ningaloo coast, and about 30 dead marine mammals were recorded.

“We have received reports of turtles, dolphins, snakes and other wildlife dying along hundreds of kilometers of coastline,” he said.

Carter said there were “immediate and significant impacts on animal welfare” and that helicopters were being used to assess the situation, with veterinarians on hand to euthanize the animals if necessary.

He said there have been some positive signs since the hurricane passed, including 19 new turtle tracks observed.

coral fears

Narelle’s path carried the storm directly into northern parts of the Ningaloo coastline and coral reefs.

Last year, two of three corals at Ningaloo died after an unprecedented marine heatwave caused the worst recorded mass coral bleaching event across more than 1,000 kilometers of Western Australian coastline.

Dr James Gilmour, senior research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said cyclones could drown corals in sediments, making them more susceptible to disease.

Large-scale die-offs of aquatic plants and animals have also increased the risk of algal blooms that can damage corals.

“Entire sections of the reef can be removed and corals can be injured and literally sandblasted or buried under rubble. There are a lot of direct and indirect pressures that they face,” he said.

The timing of Narelle’s arrival at Ningaloo coincided with the corals being in the middle of their spawning season.

“Corals expend a significant amount of energy in the production of their reproduction, and this occurs over several months.

“The corals will have very low energy, and so the energy required for the polyps to clear the sediment will be much lower,” he said.

Gilmour said that Ningaloo corals, which did not die in last year’s mass bleaching, were weakened due to this event. After the hurricane, there was a possibility that some of the surviving corals would be destroyed.

“[Narelle] “This is another death incident, and this of course worries us,” he said.

“We’re starting to worry about windows of recovery. You need five or 10 years, and we’re very concerned about how many of those windows will remain.”