Latest news with #JamesGilmour
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
‘It was our hope spot': scientists heartbroken as pristine coral gardens hit by Western Australia's worst bleaching event
The Rowley Shoals are on many a diver's bucket list. The three coral atolls, hundreds of kilometres off the Western Australian coastline, are teeming with pristine coral gardens that for a long time, unlike many of the world's reefs, had escaped the ravages of global heating. 'I've seen a fair bit of death and destruction, but Rowley Shoals was always the place that was still standing,' says Dr James Gilmour, a research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science. 'Just the sheer abundance of life is incredible. It was our hope spot. It's the reef I love more than any other. So this was super emotional.' Starting in August 2024, an unprecedented heatwave has swept across Western Australia's reefs, turning corals white from the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo all the way to Ashmore Reef, about 1,500km north-east. Now, teams of government scientists are reporting widespread coral death, which they say is the worst bleaching to hit the state. There are still areas of live coral, and some bleached coral will recover, but as scientists gather data, the scale of mortality has left many shocked. At Rowley Shoals, Gilmour, who has been researching corals for 30 years, says a visit in mid-April presented a devastating and confronting scene. 'It was several weeks after the peak heat stress. Some corals were still bleached white, but most had died. We saw that over vast areas,' he says. 'The structure is still there but they're now all covered in algae. Everywhere was dead coral skeletons.' Coral bleaching describes a process whereby the coral animal expels the algae that live in its tissues and give it its colour and much of its nutrients. Without its algae, a coral's white skeleton can be seen through its translucent flesh, giving off a bleached appearance. Mass coral bleaching over large areas, first noticed in the 1980s around the Caribbean, is caused by rising ocean temperatures. Some corals also display fluorescent colours under stress when they release a pigment that filters light. Sunlight also plays a role in triggering bleaching. Corals can survive bleaching if temperatures are not too extreme or prolonged. But extreme marine heatwaves can kill corals outright. Coral bleaching can also have sub-lethal effects, including increased susceptibility to disease and reduced rates of growth and reproduction. Scientists say the gaps between bleaching events are becoming too short to allow reefs to recover. Coral reefs are considered one of the planet's ecosystems most at risk from global heating. Reefs support fisheries that feed hundreds of millions of people, as well as supporting major tourism industries. The world's biggest coral reef system – Australia's Great Barrier Reef – has suffered seven mass bleaching events since 1998, of which five were in the past decade. The sandy-bottomed reef lagoons – usually alive with colourful branching corals and fish filling every space – are now 'huge fields of staghorns, all dead,' Gilmour says. 'The outer slope drops from a few metres to 50 metres and it's like looking down the side of a cliff. You can usually see the life down there – the sharks swimming. But this time we looked down the side of the mountain and you didn't see life.' Gilmour says the temperatures at every reef north of Ningaloo reached as high as or higher than ever recorded. 'We've never had every major WA reef affected in a single event. This is the worst coral bleaching event recorded for WA reefs.' Dr Chris Fulton, a principal research scientist at AIMS, has been going to the World Heritage-listed tourism hotspot of Ningaloo since 2008. After a research visit in late January when corals were turning white, he and colleagues returned last week. 'It was a real shock and a lot of us were deeply affected,' Fulton says. 'You have the desert going right to the water's edge and you can just step off the shore in to a spectacular reef that you don't get anywhere else. These natural features are comforting. So imagine if they've all been painted white. Every shape and size of coral colony are being affected with bleaching and mortality.' Fulton spends hundreds of hours a year diving and, usually, the water temperature isn't something that registers. 'But we were all struck by the massive heat in the lagoon,' he says. Ningaloo has bleached badly before, in 2010/11, but Fulton says this year is worse. Temperature loggers in the water showed it was up to 3C above normal – levels that can be devastating for corals. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email After surveying one personal favourite spot, known as the Oyster Stacks, Fulton says he emerged 'bawling my eyes out'. 'I couldn't believe how bad it was – but then there's a resolve to document what's happening.' Fulton says the seaweed meadows used by fish as nurseries have fared OK, but the fish that feed on coral – such as the Chevron butterfly fish – are crowding around the few surviving corals. 'They're often the pretty fish, but they're usually the first to go. They literally starve to death, and we're starting to see that already. I'm not optimistic they're going to survive.' One bright spot, says Fulton, is that some individual corals across a wide variety of types had managed to survive when others of the same species had died. 'I'm astounded by that,' he said. 'So it's a genuine source of optimism.' Elsewhere along the WA coastline, the story of coral death is repeated. At the Kimberley Marine Research Station, intern and recent university ecology graduate Tara Thomsen, from Melbourne, says even though temperatures have started to fall, there is still bleaching 'I've found it pretty heartbreaking, coming to this beautiful part of the world with pristine areas but seeing in some places the reefs reduced to rubble. It's pretty sad,' she says. Phillip 'Bibido' McCarthy, coordinator of Bardi Jawi Rangers, says there are 50 or 60 small islands off the Dampier Peninsula, many with big reefs. 'We've had a big impact right through the coastline,' McCarthy says. 'We can see the whiteness even off the boat ramp. It's quite terrible. Our resources come from the ocean. These habitats are where the fish grow. I'm 56 but I've never seen anything like this.' Dr Thomas Holmes coordinates the marine science program at the WA government's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Reefs have been monitored from the air and in the water. He says the heatwave started to reach levels to bleach corals in December. At Ningaloo, bleaching is still unfolding. 'I'm not afraid to use the word unprecedented,' he says. 'We have never seen this in recorded history, whether it's the period of time – it started getting hot in December and some places are still bleaching – or in how hot it's got. And it's unprecedented in scale.' Dr Claire Spillman, principal research scientist at the Bureau of Meteorology, confirms marine heatwave conditions started in WA as early as August 2024 and are ongoing in central and southern parts of the state's waters. Australia's ocean areas have warmed on average by 1C since 1900, and several WA ocean areas have seen their hottest months in this latest heatwave. 'Warming events like the one we are seeing now off the WA coast are becoming more frequent,' Spillman says. Helping fuel the heat, too, has been an accumulation of warmer water in the far western Pacific, which pushed down the WA coast to become part of the Leeuwin current running south. About 90% of the extra heat trapped by rising levels of greenhouse gases has been absorbed by the ocean. Gilmour says the sheer scale of ocean heating is something corals in the region have never had to deal with. 'When you're out there it looks like everything is dead, and it's overwhelming. For Rowley Shoals it will take 10 years [for some recovery] – if we don't get another severe bleaching event. But of course, we are going to get one. 'What really worries me and others is not so much the loss of the corals and reefs, it's that we have reached the point where all these ecosystems are in the same situation. 'And what does this mean? 'This is what 1.5C above the preindustrial [average temperature] means. Things will get a lot worse before it gets better, and that's what makes me sad.'
ABC News
14-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Gilmour Space Technologies delays launch of Australia's first home-grown rocket, with hopes for take-off on Friday
The stage is set for a Queensland company to enter the record books as the first to launch a locally-made rocket into orbit from Australian soil — but history won't be made today. After years of planning and preparations, Gold Coast-based Gilmour Space Technologies finally has clearance to launch its 23-metre Eris rocket from a purpose-built pad in the north Queensland town of Bowen. Authorities have given the company a two-week window for the launch, which first opened on Thursday at 7.30am. Less than an hour before the window opened, the company announced a technical difficulty that would postpone its launch target until Friday. Company co-founder and CEO Adam Gilmour said an issue with the rocket's electrical system was discovered on Wednesday evening. "The team's working as quickly as they can so we can get to tomorrow morning's launch window at 7.30am," Mr Gilmour said. He said the team was expecting some last-minute issues. "I've been out at the launch site probably 16 hours a day, through the nights, watching everybody and they're all just pumped, working as hard as possible to get the rocket ready." If the 30-tonne rocket eventually does makes it beyond the Earth's atmosphere and into orbit, it will be the culmination of a dream first sparked in 2012 when Gilmour Space Technologies opened its doors in a northern Gold Coast factory. "It's obviously been a long journey for me and my brother, our investors and our dedicated employees," said company co-founder James Gilmour. "Now we're on the cusp of achieving Australian space history." As well as getting launch clearance from the Australian Space Agency and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, the company also needed environmental approval and permits to build its launch pad in what was once a cow paddock. For all the effort and years of work, there's no guarantee that the rocket will reach orbit. In fact, Adam Gilmour is all but banking on some kind of misfire. "It's very hard to ask a rocket guy how confident they are on their first launch because 100 per cent of them fail — it just depends where they fail," he told the ABC's The Business. "I'm personally hoping to get off the [launch] pad. My chief engineer says if we get off the pad we'll have at least 20, 30, 40, 50-seconds of flight time. "If we do that it'll be considered a very successful first flight." James Gilmour is equally pragmatic about the rocket's chance of reaching orbit. For now at least, he's keeping watch on what's happening inside the Earth's atmosphere. "The weather is a very important aspect — it can't be blowing a gale and unfortunately sometimes Bowen is known as being 'Blowin' Bowen' … but the next couple of days look favourable," he said.
ABC News
14-05-2025
- Science
- ABC News
Gilmour Space Technologies set to launch Australia's first home-grown orbital rocket
The first Australian-built orbital rocket could enter space from Thursday. It is expected to lift off from a launch pad built in a north Queensland cattle paddock. Here is everything you need to know. The rocket, named Eris, is set to be launched from Bowen. The test flight could potentially carry a ceremonial jar of Vegemite into orbit during an eight-minute flight over the Coral Sea. It is expected to crash land into the ocean. Authorities have given flight clearance between 7.30am and 5.30pm on Thursday, which will continue until Monday. While rockets were launched in Australia as early as 1967, none have been locally made, according to Australian National University astrophysicist Brad Tucker. "Not only has Gilmour built the rocket, but they had to build the Bowen Spaceport for launches as well," Dr Tucker says. Gilmour Space Technologies says it has spent four-and-a-half years working on the rocket that is about the same height as a seven-storey building. The 30,000-kilogram rocket stands on the company's purpose-built Bowen Orbital Spaceport, built on a cow paddock. Gilmour says the maximum speed of the rocket will be about 27,500kph. Staff are aiming to get it about 200 kilometres above Earth's surface for the first flight. The company, which has been described as Australia's answer to Elon Musk's SpaceX, is based on the Gold Coast. It is run by brothers Adam and James Gilmour, who co-founded the company in 2013 with a team of about a dozen people. Valued at more than $600 million it now employs about 200 engineers, with plans to launch satellites from Bowen on an ongoing commercial basis. Gilmour Space Technologies says the launch will not be live streamed. And while there is no official viewing point, the rocket may be visible from Bowen beaches and high points in the area. The area near the Abbot Point launch site will be restricted to vehicles and drones. An exclusion area will also be set for boats under the rocket's flight path. The ABC will be broadcasting live from Bowen, nearby the launch site, on ABC North Queensland on the ABC Listen App. We can not be sure whether it will launch on Thursday. Company chief executive David Gilmour says the long-awaited launch can not be confirmed until the day and is subject to calm wind conditions. "Thursday to Sunday is [forecast to have] some of the best winds for months … so if the forecasts hold true, we're looking good," he says. "We monitor the wind about three hours before the launch window opens." Mr Gilmour says the company is able to make multiple launch attempts because of the rocket's technology. "The benefit of our propulsion technology is if we don't get off the pad, we don't blow up," Mr Gilmour says. "What we can do is bring the rocket back down, just build some new engines, put them back on and have another crack and we think that'll be about two months later." Mr Gilmour says a small herd of cattle near the launch site are likely to have some of the best views. "We talked to the person that's managing the cows, and they're not too worried about them," he says. "They'll have a better view than us. "We can't get that close." Tourists are also interested in the launch, according to Tourism Whitsundays chief executive Tim Booth, who says future launches by the company can attract visitors. "Over time, this will really become a [tourism] category in-and-of itself," he says. North Queensland boaties keen to watch the launch have been urged to navigate with extreme caution to stay out of the path of potential space launch debris. The company says it chose Abbot Point to the north of Bowen township because it is sparsely populated. The existing industrial site also takes advantage of its proximity to the equator which will allow the rocket to pick up speed from Earth's rotation.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Countdown to Aussie space dream begins
The countdown is on to a milestone moment in Australian space and manufacturing history, with Gilmour Space set to launch its first Eris rocket into space on Thursday morning. The launch, if successful, would mark Australia's first-ever domestically designed and produced rocket launching into orbit and would make the country only the 12th in the world to achieve the complex engineering feat. Blast-off will take place from a launch pad in Bowen, North Queensland, and Gilmour CEO and co-founder Adam Gilmour said he would 'hit the town' hard with a successful launch. 'I think it will be like winning an Olympic gold medal,' he told NewsWire. 'I think I'll be extremely happy, and I'll give my brother a big hug. 'I intend to hit the town of Bowen hard that night for a party and buy everyone a beer.' Mr Gilmour and his brother James founded the Gold Coast company in 2015 to uplift Australia's sovereign space capabilities and compete with American giants like Elon Musk's SpaceX. The company's Eris rocket is designed to send small satellites into low earth orbits for commercial and government customers. The countdown window to launch has now begun following final approvals from CASA and the Australian Space Agency and Mr Gilmour said he was feeling 'pretty good'. 'The weather forecast looks really good for Thursday to Sunday,' he said. 'We're going to give it a good crack. We've started the launch countdown process already.' Key 'dry' checks take place 36 hours out from launch, with the Gilmour crew checking avionics and power systems, before moving to fluid checks closer to launch. 'That basically happens pretty much right up to the launch window. That will keep us busy,' he said. 'We've done two wet dress rehearsals before … so there is some confidence we can proceed through, but you never know on the day.' Mr Gilmour said his key metrics for success were getting off the pad and then flight time, with 10 seconds a crucial marker. 'That's like winning a soccer match one-nil,' he said. 'Two-nil is 30 seconds and all the way to first stage is three-nil and then it just gets better from there.' No space company has successfully entered orbit on its first launch attempt. SpaceX achieved orbit on its fourth attempt in September 2008. Mr Gilmour said the company hoped to reach orbit on its third attempt. A jar of vegemite and a camera will ride on the rocket. 'If the payload fairing goes off, that's halfway to space already, and then we can take some fantastic shots of space and the earth,' he said. 'If we get to orbit, that camera will be taking shots of the earth.' The company is backed by venture capital firms Blackbird and Main Sequence, the Queensland Investment Corporation and superannuation funds HESTA and HostPlus and last year raised $55m to fund its manufacture and test of Eris. Eris was designed and manufactured at the company's Gold Coast factory and Mr Gilmour said Australia could succeed in manufacturing if it went after 'high margin' industries. 'The nuance of it is, we're not good at manufacturing things that have a very low margin because our labour costs are so high,' he said. 'What we should do is focus on things that have a very high margin. Anything to do with software, chips, high tech, anything to do with defence, all of that has very high margins and we are as competitive as anyone in those industries. 'Space is a great example. Space is an industry that has very high salaries around the world, and even with our high salaries in Australia, we are still competitive with America and Europe. 'That's what Australia has to focus on, not low-value widgets.' Mission control is a 'big donga' about 7km outside Bowen, Mr Gilmour said. The launch window runs from Thursday through to Sunday.
