Bounty Day brings some biting winds! — Norfolk Island's Reef

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.

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Today, 8 June, is Bounty Day here on Norfolk Island. It’s a day of celebration for Norfolk Islanders of Pitcairn descent – the day when, in 1856, their forbears first arrived on the island. We were honoured to be invited to join local friends for the Bounty Day picnic lunch in the compound. This is such a great celebration of what it means to be part of the community. It was definitely worth braving the biting chill winds, which felt they had hailed directly from the Antarctic, to share such a special day.

At the beginning of last week, I was finally able to use my camera again to record the damage from the massive swells we have had rolling in, courtesy of this year’s La Niña. The visibility had been about as far as my hand in front of my face for some time, but as it cleared over a period of a couple of days I was able to see the havoc wrought by the waves. I have included a slideshow of some of the recent damage (below). This was on top of quite a bit of damage back in January. It hasn’t been a good year for the poor coral.

Many will say that this is part of the natural order of things for the reef, and, of course, they are quite correct. But sadly, some parts of the reef here are covered in algal growth or are damaged by disease – all caused by the high nutrient levels as a result of the polluted water draining and permeating into the bay areas over many years. This additional, albeit natural, stress on top of the other issues facing the reef is so sad to see. Large coral colonies, some 20 or 30 years old and older, have been destroyed in the space of a few days.

On the 4 June I was lucky enough to spot a salmon-pink Platydoris cinereobranchiata, a type of sea slug, at the Lone Pine side of Emily Bay.

That same day, I also saw three doubleheaders communing together, off the Salt House, quietly grazing away. One was a very large male, terminal phase, while the other two were both primary phase. The surge wrasse, Thalassoma purpureum, were out and about in goodly numbers, and a small flotilla of Bluespotted cornetfish – Fistularia commersonii.

The aatuti (banded scalyfin or Parma polylepis) have been getting assertively territorial, guarding their little patches of algae against all-comers, possibly, I think, because they have been mating.

I was also lucky enough to see two spotted porcupinefish, Diodon hystrix, caught in flagrante delicto (sorry, no photos of this).

And so the circle of life continues.

Platydoris cinereobranchiata

Three doubleheaders - Coris bulbifrons

Banded scalyfin - Parma polylepis

Four bluespotted cornetfish - Fistularia commersonii.

Above: Some of the destruction meted out on the reef at the end of May and beginning of June.

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.

June 28, 2026

The red seaweed behind low-methane beef

A small red seaweed on Norfolk’s reef has become part of a much bigger story. Asparagopsis taxiformis can look like a delicate red feather duster or, at another stage of its life cycle, like a tiny cottony pom-pom. It is beautiful, easily overlooked, and now being used in the cattle industry to help reduce methane emissions. This post looks at the reef oddity behind the low-methane beef story – and why repeated local observation can be more useful than it first appears.

June 20, 2026

From coral scar to aatuti farm

Aatuti are bold little algae farmers, but how does one of their farms begin? Over the past year, I have been following several coral patches as small white scars became algal footholds, then larger defended patches. I still cannot say what caused the first wounds, but the photo sequences show something fascinating: on a reef where algae is already gaining ground, even tiny changes on the coral surface can become part of a much bigger story.

June 15, 2026

Norfolk’s water quality – when action is reported as outcome

A recent Australian Government media release presents investment, monitoring and catchment works as progress on Norfolk Island’s water quality. Some of that work is useful, and some of it was badly needed. But activity is not the same as proven improvement. This post looks at Kingston sewerage, wetlands, cattle, acid sulfate soils, groundwater and reef health, and asks whether Emily Bay and Slaughter Bay are actually being better protected.

June 14, 2026

How surgeonfishes got their name

Surgeonfish are named for the sharp little scalpels near their tails, but on Norfolk’s reef their more useful work happens at the other end. Pencil surgeonfish, bluespine unicornfish and their relatives help browse algae across the reef – a small daily job that becomes very valuable on an algae-rich lagoon reef like ours.

May 28, 2026

A shrimp storm

While setting my research cams last week, I swam into what looked like an underwater snowstorm. It appeared to be the aftermath of a mass moulting event, with large numbers of tiny, translucent shrimp-like exoskeletons drifting together near the surface.

Kingston dredging: what happens when a reef does not fit the framework

This correspondence with DCCEEW is about more than one dredging proposal. It is about what happens when an ecologically distinctive place is assessed through standard tools that do not always make its most important values easy to see. I am publishing it here because that is something we need to be aware of, both on Norfolk Island and more broadly in Australia.

May 24, 2026

Kingston dredging: the project advances, the questions remain

Kingston dredging is edging closer, and the paper trail is growing. This post brings together earlier correspondence with the Department and the latest media release so readers can see what has been asked, what has been answered, and what still remains unclear about the project, its rationale, and the protections proposed for the reef.

May 17, 2026

The lime-green coral in Slaughter Bay – a 40-year paper trail

Green Mountain – the name I give this coral in my database – is a coral I’ve photographed for years as I swim past. Then I found its backstory in the Norfolk Island National Parks archives: a rough map, reused paper, a note in the margin – ‘still thriving’. That’s how baselines begin.