A new study of tidal movements along the north-west Western Australian coast is underway to help protect reef systems in the area.
The Australian Research Council has allocated $700,000 to the project, which will focus on the interaction of tides and reef systems between Ningaloo Reef and Camden Sound.
A marine scientist at the University of Western Australia, Ryan Lowe, will head the five-year study.
He says the work is long overdue.
"I'd say the Kimberley, and critically the inshore areas of the Kimberley, are some of the most poorly understood areas in the world," he said.
"There's very little scientific research that's been conducted and I think even globally, the area experiences the largest tides of any tropical area of the world, so a lot [of] the questions and research conditions are unique."
Professor Lowe says the findings will feed into management plans for newly created marine parks along the north-west coast.
"There's such a lack of just basic knowledge at this point," he said.
"The first priority is really to develop numerical models that can actually predict tidal movements over these very extreme, complex reef systems."
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