I took these photographs this morning, Monday, 8 December 2025. A few warm days of settled weather, little cloud cover and low tides in the hottest part of the day have led to some early bleaching on our reef. Bleaching doesn’t always mean death for our corals, but it is concerning to have this so early in the summer season. Fingers crossed the conditions don’t last and the reef can recover.
Read MoreThe flowerpot coral, Genus Goniopora, Norfolk Island, which I thought was a sea anemone (below)!
Nature is my teacher
This is a thank-you note. Five years after my first Out on a swim post – written with zero marine science quals and a head full of questions – I’m still in the water, now as a PhD candidate, because an extraordinary mix of locals, volunteers, researchers and public servants decided to share what they knew. This is the story of how nature – and a very patient community – became my teachers.
Read MoreAerial image of Kingston Pier and the west end of Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island. This map includes data from Airbus Imagery from the dates:20/06/2023–12/09/2023.
Reef grief: what dredging has done to other reefs
From Miami to Fiji, from Dubai to tiny village harbours on atolls, dredging near coral reefs has left a long trail of scars – even on ‘small’ projects. This follow-up to last week’s Kingston post walks through real examples of what happened elsewhere, and what that should make us think about before we dig up our own reef.
Read MoreA view to the west of the historic Kingston Pier, which directly adjoins the coral reef lagoon system of Emily and Slaughter Bays. The dredge site is on its east and southern sides.
To dredge or not to dredge? The Kingston Pier channel project
How much risk are we really taking with the planned dredging at Kingston Pier – and how much protection do our corals actually have on paper? This piece walks through what the federal approval does and doesn’t guarantee, explains why sediment and light matter so much to the reef, and asks the hard questions we need answered before we trade a deeper channel for a shallower future.
Read MoreEclipse butterflyfish – Chaetodon bennetti, Norfolk Island
Celebrating Biodiversity Month on Norfolk Island
September is Biodiversity Month – the perfect time to celebrate the astonishing variety of life on Norfolk Island’s reef. From new fish sightings to coral mosaics, every observation is a reminder of how much there is still to learn and protect.
Read more about why biodiversity matters, globally and right here in our lagoon.
Read MoreMr Lemonhead, the yellow boxfish (Ostracion cubicus) 8 August 2025, Norfolk Island
Biomimicry: How a Boxfish Caught Mercedes Benz’s Eye
Meet Mr Lemonhead – our lagoon’s teeny yellow boxfish with a big design legacy. He inspired a Mercedes Benz concept car, proving how nature is full of surprises. And he shares the lagoon with other critters whose tricks have also shaped real-world inventions.
Read MoreHynophora pilosa colony, Norfolk Island
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.
Read MoreCute 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.
Read More
Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island, March 2020
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.
Read MoreFrom 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.
Read MoreEmily Bay at low tide, early morning, December 2024
A year in review – 2024 on Norfolk Island’s Reef
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 MoreThe Emily Bay’s massive ‘brain’ coral, Paragoniastrea australensis, photographed on 6 July 2024
While you were sleeping ...
This massive and incredibly slow-growing Paragoniastrea australensis sits in Emily Bay on Norfolk Island and is one of our most recognisable bommies. While all looks reasonably calm during the day, at night, while you are sleeping, the surface of the coral colony seethes with millions of tiny tentacles busily reaching out to find food, while others aggressively ward off opportunistic interlopers.
Read MoreThe view across Emily Bay and Slaughter Bay’s contiguous reef at low tide. Quintal’s Passage can be seen as two parrallel lines of rocks. It runs from Emily out to sea.
Blasting a passage through the reef, Norfolk Island
We have shaped Kingston, Norfolk Island, to suit our own ends, whether it is by draining the swamp, undertaking major earthworks, or by using it for agriculture and grazing. Our interventions have placed the reef at risk. But simultaneously, the confluence of human activity and a unique natural environment have created a place of incredible significance, which deserves some special management to preserve all its facets.
Read MoreHigh tide and pounding waves on Norfolk Island’s coral lagoon, southern shore, looking east towards Point Hunter
Norfolk Island reef's autopsy reports
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 More
Green moon wrasse, Emily Bay, Norfolk Island
I only have fish eyes for you!
Do fish have eyes that move independently? Well, no, not really, but, yes, sort of, in some species, sometimes!
Read on for a brief ‘Fish eyes 101’ summary of how they work.
Read More
A territorial banded scalyfin, Parma polylepis (aatuti), Norfolk Island
Know your damsels – multispine damselfish versus banded scalyfins
The banded scalyfins and the multispine damselfish are arguably two of the most common species in Norfolk Island’s lagoons. People often confuse them, particularly the juveniles, so here are some photos to clarify which are which. Once the differences have been pointed out, you’ll never confuse them again.
Read MoreNorfolk Island’s inshore reef during low tide and at sunrise
A year in review – 2023 on Norfolk Island's reef
Sadly, the year didn’t bring any obvious improvements to Norfolk Island's reef in terms of reductions in incidences of coral disease, or runaway algal growth. And while some fish seem to have departed the scene, another species has re-established its home. Here’s a rundown of what I've been doing during the last four years of observations, and what I've seen happening on our reef in 2023.
Read MoreFree weed!
I couldn’t resist posting these beautiful images of floating seaweed. Enjoy!
Read MoreAcropora coral, Norfolk Island, 14_StairwayReef, 14 November 2021
The journey from coral reef to rubble
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
The spatiotemporal dynamics of a coral disease
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 More