Meet George, the surge wrasse — 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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Meet George, the surge wrasse. In fact, here on Norfolk Island, for some weird reason, they are all called George and have been for as long as I can remember. I’ve no idea why, but I do recall asking someone, many years ago, what kind of fish this purple, turquoise and pink guy was and I was told, ‘Oh, that is George!’ And so the name stuck!

George is also known as a green-blocked wrasse, purple wrasse or red and green wrasse, and more formally as a Thalassoma purpureum.

These guys are insanely, eye-achingly colourful, so I decided they were worthy of a photo dump on these pages. The Georginas can be seen towards the bottom of the photo gallery, and while more subtle in their colouration they are still very pretty.

Here are some quick facts about George and his relatives:

Surge wrasse are widespread, ranging from the southeast Atlantic, across the Indian Ocean and into the Pacific.
They love to hang out on rocky shores and coral reefs where there is plenty of heavy wave action.
The largest males can grow up to 46 cm in length and weigh about 1.2 kg.
George is a carnivore. He likes to eat sea urchins, crabs, molluscs, worms and other invertebates, and even small fish. You can see a surge wrasse feeding on fish in the video, ‘Lifecycle of the mouthbrooding Norfolk Cardinalfish, below.
They are protogynous hermaphrodite, in that females change sex to become males.
It is a pelagic spawner. The eggs and sperm are broadcast into the surface waters of the open ocean.
They are thought to live for ten years in the wild.

The surge wrasse’s protractile mouth juts outwards (Norfolk Island)

Surge wrasse are members of the wrasse family (Labridae) many of which are brightly coloured. I have noted 22 species of wrasse living inside our lagoons so far. If you include parrotfish (Scaridae), which are traditionally referred to as a separate family, but are now often treated as wrasse, there are an additional five species that I have recorded here.

Like many members of the wrasse family, they have protractile mouths, with separate jaw teeth that project forward, and fleshy lips.

References

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.