‘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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Hynophora pilosa colony, Norfolk Island
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 MoreHealthy montipora coral, Norfolk Island
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.
Read MoreNorfolk Island’s inshore reef during low tide and at sunrise
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 MoreAcropora coral, Norfolk Island, 14_StairwayReef, 14 November 2021
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
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 MoreHealthy montipora coral, Norfolk Island
Today’s focus on Norfolk Island’s reef is a photo essay. This series of photographs taken over the course of a year demonstrates how disease affects a montipora coral bommie by gradually killing the coral and creating an environment that allows algae to gain a foothold and to eventually take over.
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