September full moon on 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 blog is rated in the Top 20 Coral Reef Blogs in the world.

More changeable weather this week with poor visibility in the bays curtailing some of my observations, but the full moon last night brought us some beautiful, settled weather, right on cue, which meant I was able to get out into Slaughter Bay for the first time in ages.

What greeted me wasn’t too pretty either. There is one area of coral I have been watching since the marine researchers from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science were here in March and alerted me to the onset of white syndrome, or white band disease. I have kept an eye on it since then and watched as the colony has gradually died. This week it was virtually unrecognisable, covered by a thick growth of algae. You can see the progression of the disease, below. Heartbreaking.

4 May 2021

11 June 2021

20 September 2021

A sure sign that things are warming up in the water was the sighting of a couple of Lady Musgrave blennies, Cirripectes chelomatus, out and about for the first time in yonks. I have seen them over winter, but it has been incredibly fleeting as they dashed for cover. This week my regular guy was happy to sit and be photographed. No sign of the chestnut eyelash blennies, Cirripectes castaneus, yet, though.

From now on, I expect to see these cheeky guys more and more. They tend to sit up on a prominent piece of coral, flutter up and then dive quickly back down and hide. And they will start to change colour as the season progresses to a beautiful greeny yellow with their blue tails. The first two images are from today. The others are to show you what I expect them to look like very soon.

Lady Musgrave blenny - Cirripectes chelomatus 20.09.21

17 November 2020

2 February 2021

Another fun photograph was of (I think*) a redcap triplefin, Enneapterygius rufopileus. These guys are a master of disguise. Probably less than 1 cm in length, they can be really hard to spot. Blink and they’re gone. The other image is of (I think*) a Doug’s eviota, Eviota hoesei. Similar in size to the redcap triplefin, and looking like a diminutive jewel, he has a black spot near his tail.

Redcap triplefin - Enneapterygius rufopileus

Doug's eviota - Eviota hoesei

To round off the week out on a swim, I thought I’d post one of my favourite butterflyfish, the vagabond butterflyfish, Chaetodon vagabundus. This is one of a pair that were happily flitting around in Slaughter Bay yesterday.

Vagabond butterflyfish - Chaetodon vagabundus

When I first started observing and photographing, I had no idea that there were so many variations on yellow, black and white among the butterflyfish. If you hop over to my reef fish page and scroll down to the Butterflyfish heading you will see what I mean.

*I've tried to get a definitive ID on these tiny critters on iNaturalist.org, but so far I've been unsuccessful.

Jun 13, 2025

Glimpses of recovery: what the reef could be if we let it

Day 6 of this photo series from Norfolk Island coincides with the final day of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice. After a week of documenting decline, today’s post offers a different view – what reef recovery can look like when conditions improve. Drought in 2024 gave the reef a break, and the results were unmistakable: healthier corals, lower disease, and more fish. This is what’s possible if we act.

Jun 12, 2025

Warning signs: quiet and unnoticed collapse of two coral colonies

Day 5 of my blog series for the UN Ocean Conference: two long-lived coral colonies in Norfolk’s lagoon died quietly from disease. No drama – just slow collapse and overgrowth by algae. A reminder that not all reef losses are loud, but they are happening.

Jun 11, 2025

Warning signs: what Norfolk Island’s reef is telling us

Day 4 of a week-long photo series from Norfolk Island, shared during the UN Ocean Conference in Nice. Today’s post spotlights a Hydnophora pilosa colony where white syndrome appeared suddenly and spread quickly, taking out around a quarter of the coral. In the months that followed, algae quietly filled the gap – a subtle but telling shift from coral to algae that’s happening across the reef.

Jun 10, 2025

Warning signs: coral disease takes hold

In Day 3 of this blog post series, published while leaders gather at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, we see Norfolk Island’s coral reef lagoon quietly delivering a stark warning: recurrent land-based pollution, coral disease, and delayed decisions are dismantling this ecosystem in real time.

Jun 9, 2025

Warning signs: coral growth anomalies – the slow cancers of the reef

Day 2’s post coinciding with the UN Ocean Conference looks at coral growth anomalies – sometimes called coral ‘cancers’. These slow-moving diseases quietly weaken coral colonies, making them far more vulnerable to storm damage and algal takeover. On Norfolk Island’s reef, I’ve watched this exact process play out over several years. This is how chronic stress silently dismantles coral ecosystems.

Jun 8, 2025

Warning signs: shifting baselines on Norfolk Island’s reef

Today is World Ocean Day — a timely moment to launch my week-long blog series on Norfolk Island’s reef. Each day this week, I’ll be sharing photo essays that document the slow but steady pressures reshaping this fragile reef. Today: how shifting baselines make us blind to what we’ve already lost.

Apr 29, 2025

The Governance–Government Vacuum: Norfolk Island’s Forgotten Ecology

A personal reflection on Norfolk Island’s coral reef environment, political denial, and what John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes can still teach us about slow-moving disasters — and why this election matters more than ever.

Feb 20, 2025

Cute as buttons – Astrea curta

Astrea curta corals are ‘small, moderately plocoid [flattened], distinct, and almost circular’ . Normally grey-green in colour, you can see from the images here, ours are often beautiful rich gold, although they do vary. They have a neat growth habit and button-like corallites, which can grow in columns, spherically or flattened. Large colonies of these can form gorgeous undulating bumps.

Jan 26, 2025

From 'Watch' to 'Warning'

Last week, the chance of coral bleaching in Norfolk Island’s inshore lagoons was raised from ‘Watch’ to ‘Warning’ and will more than likely rise to Alert levels one and two in coming weeks. So why do I worry about water quality all the time when bleaching seems inevitable these days and so the reef is probably doomed anyway? Read on to find out.

Jan 4, 2025

From little things – watching them grow

Small numbers of different fish species is not an unusual phenomenon on Norfolk Island’s reef, but it does demonstrate what a tiny, precious, coral reef ecosystem we have, when we can count individuals on one hand and watch each of them grow, like these little blackeye thicklips, a member of the wrasse family.