A scientist who recently visited the Great Barrier Reef has said "if it was a person, it would be on life support", as researchers strive to highlight the plight of the reef.

New images have shown the worrying extent of the damage done to the reef by climate change.

Rising water temperatures have damaged the world’s largest reef system, which stretches for over 1,400 miles off the coast of Australia.

In May, researchers found that more than a third of the coral in northern and central parts of the reefs was dead, and 93 per cent of individual reefs had been affected by a condition known as coral bleaching.