Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is suffering widespread and severe coral bleaching due to high ocean temperatures two years after a mass bleaching event, a government agency said on Friday.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is spawning in an explosion of colour as the World Heritage-listed natural wonder recovers from life-threatening coral bleaching episodes.

The Philippine government has summoned the Chinese ambassador to press its demand for Chinese vessels to immediately leave a reef claimed by Manila in the South China Sea.

Australian scientists said that just seven percent of the Great Barrier Reef, which attracts around A$5 billion in tourism every year, has been untouched by mass bleaching that is likely to destroy half the coral.