‘Out on a swim’ is a coral reef blog that tells the stories of the characters who live under the waves and what has caught my eye when ‘out on a swim’ in the lagoons of Norfolk Island. It is also a record of the difficulties Norfolk Island’s reef faces, like many others around the world, as a result of the poor water quality that has been allowed to flow onto it.
This blog is rated in the Top 20 Coral Reef Blogs in the world.
Emily Bay at low tide, early morning, December 2024
It is five years since I began wielding a camera underwater in Norfolk Island’s lagoons and my third ‘year in review’ for this ‘Out on a swim’ blog. And what a journey it has been. At least this year I have some great news to report, but – a bit like a curate’s egg (partly bad and partly good) – there are also some downers. Find out what 2024 has meant for Norfolk Island’s reef.
Read MoreThis Acropora colony on Norfolk Island’s reef was photographed in 2021. Today it is no longer there. Weakened by disease, it was destroyed by a storm surge two years later, in December 2023
If disease were spreading through our native forests, if our trees were developing strange growths that hollowed them out, making them brittle in the face of each passing storm, would five years have slid by with the problem worsening by the day? That is exactly what is happening on Norfolk Island’s reef. Slowly, insidiously, it is dying and turning to slime.
Read MoreExtensive area of acropora coral affected by white syndrome on Norfolk Island’s reef
CSIRO are on Norfolk Island this week to present the findings of their report into water quality. As our Administrator, George Plant, says: ‘What the data shows us is that the quality of ground and surface water entering Emily and Slaughter Bays often contains high levels of contamination ... The health of the Emily and Slaughter Bay reef will continue to decline if we do not improve water quality.’
Read MoreA juvenile Hawksbill sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, inside Emily Bay lagoon, Norfolk Island, listed as critically endangered, according to the IUCN Red List, and vulnerable under the EPBC Act
Today's National Threatened Species Day post discusses the conundrum of Australia's threatened species list and the IUCN Red List as they relate to vulnerable and threatened species here on Norfolk Island in the Marine Park. How, for example, do we offer protections to something that hasn't been formally identified yet, let alone listed as threatened?
Read MoreHigh tide and pounding waves on Norfolk Island’s coral lagoon, southern shore, looking east towards Point Hunter
More reports to add to a long catalogue of reports were delivered to the general public over the last few days on Norfolk Island’s water quality and reef health. Reassuringly, they all say the same thing. Our poor water quality is affecting the health of our reef. So the science must be good! So when are we going to do something about it?
Read MoreIs this Atramentous Necrosis? This January, examples of this disease are popping up across Emily Bay on Norfolk Island
This month, I have increasingly noticed a disease that is presenting differently to the white syndrome that we have sadly become used to seeing. With this disease the coral goes grey-ish black and sometimes looks like it is almost dissolving or melting away. The result is a tragedy for the coral. I talk to coral health researcher Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth about what is going on.
Read MoreAcropora coral, Norfolk Island, 14_StairwayReef, 14 November 2021
For two years, I have stopped by and photographed this beautiful Acropora coral formation in Emily Bay on Norfolk Island. In my database for this colony, I called the folder 14_StairwayReef; 14 for the geographic location on a map, followed by my romantic name for it. Today it is just so much rubble.
Read MoreWhite syndrome on a Hynophora pilosa colony, Norfolk Island, 23 November 2023
A pictorial study of the spread of white syndrome, over time, in a Hynophora pilosa colony on Norfolk Island. This beautiful coral colony is in the middle of the channel that runs between the contiguous Emily and Slaughter Bays, in Norfolk Island’s inshore coral reef lagoon. It’s one of my favourite places to pause and admire the scenery, when I’m out on my swim.
Read MoreMy grandson
What will my grandson see when he is old enough to snorkel on Norfolk Island’s reef? Will there be anything left as I know it? Or will he think it is all great because of that hoary old phenomenon called ‘shifting baseline syndrome’? This record of all my photos and observations will give him some idea of what we had in our bays in the 2020s.
Read MoreDoris, a week after she was taken into rehab
Many of the turtles that live in Norfolk Island’s coral-reef lagoons are juveniles. In other words, they are the future of their species, and an important piece in the genetic jigsaw. Yet they seem to fall through the cracks when it comes to being protected by the EPBC Act.
Read MoreBubbles of oxygen forming on algae, photobombed by a tiny sea slug, sp, Elysia
March is often the warmest month on Norfolk Island’s reef, so it's no surprise that the algae are very busily photosynthesising and flourishing. Yesterday, I noticed that the algae had created a thick carpet of bubbles. As I swam my face was gently brushed by thousands of tingling bubbles, fizzing to the surface. It was quite a sight. And a rather weird sensation. So what is going on here?
Read MoreStunning Emily Bay, Norfolk Island.
In the 1960s we had reports voicing concerns around water quality, but nothing was done. When the Commonwealth of Australia’s EPBC Act came into force in 1999, nothing was done. Surely it is high time the issues of failing and inadequate infrastructure, deficient Norfolk Island laws and unsatisfactory protections were fixed once and for all?
Read MoreAcropora coral overgrown with algae, Norfolk Island
Today’s post for the March focus on Norfolk Island’s reef is a letter. Just that, and nothing more. The authors of this letter have very generously given me permission to reproduce it here. In it, Dr Kellie Pendoley and Dr Martin Goldsmith warn us about the future of Emily Bay. Written nearly eight years ago they give the coral reef habitat five to ten years before it is gone as we know it.
Read MoreHealthy montipora coral, Norfolk Island
Today’s focus on Norfolk Island’s reef is a photo essay. This series of photographs taken over the course of a year demonstrates how disease affects a montipora coral bommie by gradually killing the coral and creating an environment that allows algae to gain a foothold and to eventually take over.
Read MoreThe creek by the Salt House into Emily Bay
When Lt Philip Gidley King first arrived on Norfolk Island on 6 March 1788, the Kingston area was a swamp entangled in almost impenetrable vegetation. Chimney Hill created a natural stone barrier preventing water from draining into Emily Bay. In 1789, a channel was cut through the swamp, to the north of Chimney Hill and out into the bay. From this moment on the coral reef was compromised.
Read MoreThe black-mouthed tun snail as it clambered over the reef
When I took my first photographs of the live black-mouthed tun snail (Tonna melanostoma) and posted them on iNaturalist, I had no idea that there were no other – as in none, zip, nada – images of it in the public domain; just one of a broken shell that is housed in the Auckland Museum. This is my featured image for 3 March.
Read MoreBait fish, Emily Bay, Norfolk Island, September 2020
For 2 March I've chosen to feature a ball of bait fish photographed in September 2020. There is something awe-insipring about being encircled by a huge seething mass of tiny fish all moving in unison. It takes your breath away. The question is, where have these bait balls gone?
Read MoreHealthy montipora coral on Norfolk Island’s reef
After three years of observations, I have a unique library of some 80,000 images recording life in Norfolk Island’s lagoons. So I thought it would be worth spending the month of March looking back to see what has changed in that time and what hasn’t. Each day I will feature a different image. For 1 March I have picked a simple brown coral – a plate coral from the genus montipora. Read on to see what is happening to our montipora now.
Read MoreHannah and Trish with Doris
This morning marked the end of a four-month journey for Doris the green sea turtle. From a sick, emaciated turtle with lesions across her shell, and covered with an unhealthy growth of algae, she has been transformed to glossy beautiful health. Hannah slid Doris over the side of the boat and back into the bosom of the ocean, her home. We’ll miss her, but as she swam away, our hearts sang, too. She’s back where she should be.
Read MoreRemnant reef overgrown with algae, 31 January 2022, Emily Bay, Norfolk Island
As Costa Georgiadis says, nature tells the truth, and we must only look at our reef on Norfolk Island to know its truth. We, as custodians, have not been caring enough for it and now that carelessness is coming home to roost.
Read More