Coral reef specialists have long relied on satellite imagery to study reefs that are costly and difficult to reach by boat. Dr. Chris Simpson, a government scientist in Western Australia, regularly searched Google Earth for reefs along the state’s northern coast. On one such occasion, late in 2007, he discovered an extensive formation of fringing coral reefs off the remote Kimberley coast, a sight The Age described as rarely seen anywhere in the world. The Kimberley Development Commission describes the Kimberley as remot and the NASA Earth Observatory notes that the Kimberley coast has some of the largest tidal ranges in Australia and ranks among the largest in the world, with water levels at Montgomery Reef dropping sharply at low tide. Limited information was available about the reefs in this area, highlighting how little of the coastline had been documented.
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