Abiotic data were collected to assess the environmental conditions that coincided with the 2016 mass bleaching event documented at Shell island (Shenton Bluff), Cygnet Bay, Kimberley region, northwestern Australia. Temperature is of particular importance because heat stress is one of the key drivers of coral bleaching. Water temperature was recorded every 15 min by HOBO U22 v2 temperature loggers (±0.2°C) in both intertidal and subtidal environments from September 2015 until October 2016.

NOTE: all SST data from Sept 2015 - April 2016 at Shell Island can be found in the Pangaea dataset belonging to Le Nohaïc et al., 2017 (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.883207)