Atlas of Living Australia recognises iNaturalist observations for Norfolk Island

Out on A Swim

‘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 page shows the most recent blog posts. For the complete catalogue, visit the ‘Out on a swim index’ page.

This blog is rated in the Top 20 Coral Reef Blogs in the world.

It may seem unimportant, irrelevant, or downright nit picky, but back in March 2022 I contacted the Atlas of Living Australia because I’d noticed an anomaly in their dataset feeds from iNaturalist.org. Let me explain.

As you may be aware if you read my Facebook page, I upload my observations to that platform in order to help me identify species and so we have a record of what is living here on Norfolk Island. iNaturalist is a global platform. Similar to iNaturalist, you can also upload your observations to the Atlas of Living Australia, which is the preeminent Australian platform. Now I don't know about you, but I don’t have the time or resources to be sitting here duplicating my uploads. However, very conveniently, ALA has a handy form that you can tick, which allows you to opt in and have your iNaturalist observations migrated across to the ALA, just like that. Easy peasy.

Except for here on Norfolk Island there seemed to be a roadblock, and our observations weren’t recognised as being from Australia.

Now putting politics aside about the status of Norfolk Island, why is it important that our observations are included in the ALA?

Because. Science + research. That’s all. As it says on the ALA website:

“Citizen science is becoming an increasingly significant and important contributor to the pool of data being used to create a more accurate picture of our biodiversity and ultimately advance scientific knowledge.”

...

“BioCollect fills a significant gap in data collection tools, supporting scientists wanting to engage the public in their research and the public wanting to participate in important scientific work, including collecting their own observation data.”

Which comes back to a question I often ask: how can you protect something when you don't know what it is? Well, you can't.

Which is why I fired off emails at semi-regular intervals to anyone I thought would listen.

Anyway, today, 16 August 2023, thanks to the wonderful people at the Australian Museum and at the ALA, citizen science data from the external territories of Australia, including Ashmore and Cartier Islands; Christmas Island; Cocos Keeling Island; Coral Sea Islands; Heard and McDonald Islands; and Norfolk Island have finally been included for anyone who opted in for this to happen. Needless to say, I am over the moon.

The photo above is of the Norfolk Island blenny, Parablennius serratolineatus, which, incidentally, is only found in a 20 km radius of Norfolk Island, so it’s a pretty special little guy. Moreover, I used to see these down at the pier end of Slaughter Bay all the time, but haven’t spotted any since February this year (2023), despite looking out for them any time I’m snorkelling at that end.

September 13, 2026

No seagrass, but plenty of turtles

Norfolk Island does not have seagrass, although one of our most conspicuous green algae is often mistaken for it. Feather and grape Caulerpa can both form striking patches across the lagoon. I take a closer look at what Caulerpa actually is, why it is so easily confused with seagrass, and where our green turtles fit into the story.

September 6, 2026

Watching El Niño from Norfolk Island

El Niño is strengthening across the Pacific, but that does not tell us exactly what the coming months will bring to Norfolk Island. After a long wet spell, I am watching our rainfall and water supplies more closely again – and, underwater, keeping an eye on sea temperature, algae, coral recruits and the fish that turn up on the reef.

September 2, 2026

What the world’s reefs are telling Norfolk Island

Two major new coral reef reports carry a clear message for Norfolk Island: reefs can recover when pressures ease, but the time available for recovery is shrinking. Norfolk Islanders were raising concerns about water quality, runoff and the health of Emily and Slaughter Bays nearly forty years ago. Today we have much better science, a changing climate and a far clearer understanding of how closely the catchment and reef are connected. This article looks at what that means for water quality, long-term monitoring, dredging and how we manage Kingston from land to sea.

August 25, 2026

When the map changes

A fish once thought to belong only to Norfolk turns up elsewhere; another appears here hundreds of kilometres beyond its known range. Cardinalfishes and a Sabre squirrelfish show how our maps of species distributions are revised.

August 24, 2026

Endemic, native, undescribed – what do these words actually mean?

A Norfolk chromis that turned out not to be Chromis fumea, a blenny found nowhere else, and a tiny goby that may not yet have a name. A look at what we mean by native, endemic, undescribed and newly described – and why scientific names sometimes change.

August 16, 2026

What’s grazing in the green stuff?

A proliferation of Bryopsis on the reef has brought some beautiful little underwater grazers with it. I follow the trail from sap-sucking sea slugs and egg masses to a bigger question – why is there so much Bryopsis around at the moment?

August 8, 2026

The clam beneath Emily Bay

I’ve seen the beautiful shells of Laciolina chloroleuca in Emily Bay for decades, but I’d never really stopped to wonder where the living animals were. It turns out they may be buried half a metre beneath the sand. A closer look at an easily overlooked clam, its extraordinary shell markings, and the hidden life beneath our lagoon.

August 1, 2026

Reflections of an accidental marine scientist

What I thought would be a steady plod towards retirement, with plenty of time spent nursing grandchildren, was abruptly upended exactly six years ago today. This is the story of how an environmental catastrophe changed the course of my life – and led me to reinvent myself. It is a reflection on how, and why, I became an accidental marine scientist.

July 24, 2026

From ridge to reef: unpicking the Waterway and Wetland Strategy

Norfolk Island’s draft Waterway and Wetland Strategy will guide work for the next ten years. I support its intent, but it needs to be clear, practical and measurable – joining the dots from ridge to reef so we know whether public money is improving water quality and helping the reef.

July 13, 2026

Reef reality in pictures

Let the pictures do the talking. This is the reality on Norfolk Island’s reef today, laid out in a two-minute video.