Tropical cyclones can break apart branching corals and strip reef flats and the damage differs from one reef to the next depending on depth, exposure and the path of the storm. In 2017, marine biologist Johnny Gaskell, working from the Whitsunday region in Queensland, searched for areas where coral could have survived Cyclone Debbie. He used the satellite view in Google Maps to locate blue holes, which are deep circular structures that appear as dark spots in the lighter water of the lagoon surrounding them. Gaskell dived into one of the spots and said he found large, fragile colonies of coral that had survived the cyclone. Most of what is known about the find comes from his own observations and from reports of them.
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