As a king tide hit the Illawarra shoreline on Friday morning, waves spilled over sea walls at Shellharbour and covered the sand at Belmore Basin.
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In the harbour, fishing boats were lifted almost to the level of the road and a lone angler fought against the whitewash from waves that easily cleared Wollongong’s breakwall.
Naturally caused by an alignment of the earth, sun and moon, the dramatic high water levels that occur during king tides have become the focus of a photography project designed to show the potential effects of rising sea levels caused by climate change.
The Witness King Tide project, run by environmental group Green Cross Australia, uses photos of the extreme high tides to show what average sea levels could be like in decades to come. In Wollongong yesterday, high tide peaked at two metres, with seas expected to reach similar levels about 10.30am today.
Photos of this week’s king tides can be submitted at www.witnesskingtides.org.