‘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 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.
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
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 MoreIs this Atramentous Necrosis? This January, examples of this disease are popping up across Emily Bay on Norfolk Island
This month, I have increasingly noticed a disease that is presenting differently to the white syndrome that we have sadly become used to seeing. With this disease the coral goes grey-ish black and sometimes looks like it is almost dissolving or melting away. The result is a tragedy for the coral. I talk to coral health researcher Associate Professor Tracy Ainsworth about what is going on.
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.
Read MoreHealthy montipora coral on Norfolk Island’s reef
After three years of observations, I have a unique library of some 80,000 images recording life in Norfolk Island’s lagoons. So I thought it would be worth spending the month of March looking back to see what has changed in that time and what hasn’t. Each day I will feature a different image. For 1 March I have picked a simple brown coral – a plate coral from the genus montipora. Read on to see what is happening to our montipora now.
Read MoreA platygyra that has dramatically asserted its own space
How do corals assert their space on the reef? Who are the best gardners and protective parents? And have you heard of white syndrome? Sadly we have it on Norfolk Island’s reef. Read more here.
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