Torres Strait reefs badly bleached

Surveys show reefs in the Torres Strait are in the grip of the worst coral bleaching event in living memory.

Torres Strait Regional Authority chairman Joseph Elu says the widespread bleaching mirrors what scientists have reported along almost the entire length of the Great Barrier Reef.

"The ones we observed inside the inner islands, and the western and central clusters as we call them, there's been 100 per cent of reefs that have something on them," Mr Elu has told ABC radio.