WA Museum partnership with Woodside criticised as record-breaking marine heatwave decimates coral reefs

The extension of a collaboration between the Western Australian Museum and Woodside has prompted anger from climate advocates and the WA Greens. Photograph: Paul Kane/Getty Images

The Western Australian Greens and the state’s peak conservation body have condemned the extension of a research partnership between the Western Australian Museum and Woodside, as the state reels from a record-breaking marine heatwave that has killed corals over a 1,500km stretch of ocean.

The five-year continuation of the “longstanding collaboration”, in which the gas giant supports the museum’s biodiversity research along the WA coastline, would allow for further targeted research along the Gascoyne coast, according to announcements.