Is this Atramentous Necrosis? This January, examples of this disease are popping up across Emily Bay on Norfolk Island

Combine bacteria, fungi, and maybe a sponge = one toxic mess

February 1, 2024

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.

Susan's flatworm, *Pseudoceros susanae*, Norfolk Island

Susan's flatworm and the wisdom of sharing knowledge

January 22, 2024

Sharing knowledge is a fundamental aspect of human interaction that enriches both the giver and the receiver. Sharing and documenting knowledge ensures that valuable information and experiences are not lost but are instead preserved for future generations. So that is why I share.

Cemetery Bay, Norfolk Island, at low tide

Facebook fiasco – and the fishes

January 21, 2024

Readers of this website may be familiar with my Facebook page, Norfolk Island Time, on which I cross post my blog posts about Norfolk Island's marine life. I can no longer gain access to that page. It’s been taken over by a random person hell bent on getting a free lunch. But worse is that this particular scam has been doing the rounds for years while Facebook offers little assistance. We should be angry.

Norfolk Island’s inshore reef during low tide and at sunrise

A year in review – 2023 on Norfolk Island's reef

December 29, 2023

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.

Free weed!

December 22, 2023

I couldn’t resist posting these beautiful images of floating seaweed. Enjoy!

Acropora coral, Norfolk Island, 14_StairwayReef, 14 November 2021

The journey from coral reef to rubble

December 16, 2023

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.

White syndrome on a *Hynophora pilosa* colony, Norfolk Island, 23 November 2023

The spatiotemporal dynamics of a coral disease

December 9, 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.

The surf breaking over Norfolk Island’s reef, Slaughter Bay

The Water Rats – the Southern Hemisphere's oldest surf lifesaving club?

November 19, 2023

Can Norfolk Island claim the Southern Hemisphere’s oldest surf lifesaving club? Read on to find out more!

The marine algae *Hydroclathrus clathratus*, Norfolk Island

Sponge blob!

October 29, 2023

It’s common, wide spread around the globe, and yet I have only noticed it in recent weeks. It has been hiding in plain sight, yet this spongey algal blob, Hydroclathrus clathratus, is edible, and has been found to possess some remarkable medicinal properties. Read on to find out more!

Do sea anemones hold the key to immortality?

October 17, 2023

A close relative of corals and jellyfish, sea anemones are soft-bodied animals that ensnare passing prey with their stinging tentacles. No one really knows how long they can live, but in the wild they are thought to live for more than a hundred years. They have some clever adaptations that contribute to their longevity. Maybe they can teach us their secrets for a long life!

Brown? Yes. Boring? Definitely not!

October 11, 2023

Norfolk Island’s reef is one of Australia’s most southerly. It isn’t showy like the Great Barrier Reef, and I often hear the comment that it is a little dowdy – boring and brown. I’m here to tell you that it is anything but.

For this little photo essay I randomly selected just a handful of my many ‘boring, brown’ coral images to demonstrate my point. I barely scratched the surface of my photo library, yet I think you will agree, the diversity is just amazing!

A Norfolk Island endemic species, the Norfolk Island blenny, *Parablennius serratolineatus*

Atlas of Living Australia recognises iNaturalist observations for Norfolk Island

August 16, 2023

After about 18 months of asking, and with the help of some wonderful people from the data department of the Atlas of Living Australia and the Australian Museum, the Atlas of Living Australia website now recognises iNaturalist citizen science observations for Norfolk Island. Which is definitely something worth celebrating!

Old Military Barracks after heavy rain, November 2020

The clock is ticking for Norfolk Island’s reef

August 1, 2023

Three years ago, on 31 July 2020, we woke after a night of torrential rain to a scene of devastation in Emily Bay on Norfolk Island. Arguably one of the most beautiful bays in the world was a fetid, smelly mess caused by the raw sewage that had flowed from the poorly maintained sewerage works and private septic tanks, down the hill and into the bay. Read on to find out what has happened since that dreadful day.

Emily Bay, full moon rising, by Norfolk Island photographer Joelene Oliver

Full moon, low tides and Norfolk Island’s reef

June 2, 2023

With the low, low tides associated with a full moon, the bays on Norfolk Island are like a huge, calm swimming pool, giving us some great snorkelling opportunities. These low tides should also let us view the causeway, which will no doubt be exposed too. This post explores these opportunities as well as what the low tides mean for corals. Read more in this fact packed blog post.

A small school of scissortail sergeants with one interloper, an Indo-Pacific sergeant, Norfolk Island

Same, same, but different – confusing fish identities

May 25, 2023

There are a few fish species in Norfolk Island’s bays that are easily mixed up. Here’s four commonly confused pairs, with a few pointers to help you identify them.

Purple velvet sea star, *Leiaster leachii*, as it broadcasts spawn into the water column, Norfolk Island

Casting your offspring to the currents – sea star reproduction

May 8, 2023

In May on Norfolk Island, the day after the full moon and at low tide, I witnessed an enormous Leach’s sea star, Leiaster leachi, as it broadcast its gametes into the water column. What an amazing WOW moment! And what a privilege to witness such a rare event. Here are some images and video of the action.

Close-up of the underside of the acropora coral colony after being toppled in a storm

The resilience of corals

May 6, 2023

On Norfolk Island’s reef, acropora coral colonies upturned in storm surges in September 2020 initially struggled to survive, but now they are now showing signs of new, healthy growth. This incredible photo is of those early days as it struggled. You can read more and see what it looks like today in my latest blog post, here.

Crustose coralline algae, Norfolk Island

Pretty in pink – the real coral reef builders

April 8, 2023

Animal, vegetable or mineral? What are crustose coralline algae? Are they important? What role do they play on our coral reefs?

There’s a lot to learn about coralline algae. For a humble lifeform, they really pack a punch.

For the sake of our grandchildren

March 26, 2023

What will my grandson see when he is old enough to snorkel on Norfolk Island’s reef? Will there be anything left as I know it? Or will he think it is all great because of that hoary old phenomenon called ‘shifting baseline syndrome’? This record of all my photos and observations will give him some idea of what we had in our bays in the 2020s.

Black Blenny, *Enchelyurus ater* found in Slaughter Bay, Norfolk Island

Black Blenny - a new record for Norfolk Island

March 25, 2023

This is a copy of the Australian Fishes journal post about new fish sightings on Norfolk Island: ‘This observation [of a black blenny] highlights the power of citizen scientists working with professional ichthyologists to achieve important outcomes,’ Mark McGrouther, Senior Fellow at the Australian Museum.

Featured

June 14, 2026

How surgeonfishes got their name

June 14, 2026

Surgeonfish are named for the sharp little scalpels near their tails, but on Norfolk’s reef their more useful work happens at the other end. Pencil surgeonfish, bluespine unicornfish and their relatives help browse algae across the reef – a small daily job that becomes very valuable on an algae-rich lagoon reef like ours.

June 14, 2026

May 28, 2026

A shrimp storm

May 28, 2026

While setting my research cams last week, I swam into what looked like an underwater snowstorm. It appeared to be the aftermath of a mass moulting event, with large numbers of tiny, translucent shrimp-like exoskeletons drifting together near the surface.

May 28, 2026

Kingston dredging: what happens when a reef does not fit the framework

May 28, 2026

This correspondence with DCCEEW is about more than one dredging proposal. It is about what happens when an ecologically distinctive place is assessed through standard tools that do not always make its most important values easy to see. I am publishing it here because that is something we need to be aware of, both on Norfolk Island and more broadly in Australia.

May 28, 2026

May 24, 2026

Kingston dredging: the project advances, the questions remain

May 24, 2026

Kingston dredging is edging closer, and the paper trail is growing. This post brings together earlier correspondence with the Department and the latest media release so readers can see what has been asked, what has been answered, and what still remains unclear about the project, its rationale, and the protections proposed for the reef.

May 24, 2026

May 17, 2026

The lime-green coral in Slaughter Bay – a 40-year paper trail

May 17, 2026

Green Mountain – the name I give this coral in my database – is a coral I’ve photographed for years as I swim past. Then I found its backstory in the Norfolk Island National Parks archives: a rough map, reused paper, a note in the margin – ‘still thriving’. That’s how baselines begin.

May 17, 2026

April 5, 2026

What Norfolk Island’s reef tells us about environmental blind spots

April 5, 2026

The Kingston dredging proposal on Norfolk Island raises a bigger question than dredging alone: how well do standard environmental assessment tools capture the real significance of a remote and unusual reef system like Norfolk Island’s?

April 5, 2026

March 30, 2026

Hammer coral time!

March 30, 2026

Hammer corals have unique tentacles that are large, fleshy, and tubular; these terminate in a ‘T’-shaped, hammer-head or anchor. Beneath all these softly waving tentacles is an extraordinary skeleton structure, which helps define them as a large polyp stony coral.

March 30, 2026

March 24, 2026

Norfolk Island’s fishes: drifters, residents and the ones still missing

March 24, 2026

Norfolk Island’s fish fauna reflects both connection and isolation. Some species may arrive from elsewhere as drifting larvae, some populations appear to persist locally, and some fishes known from islands on either side of Norfolk have still not been recorded here. This post looks at what old survey work, regional checklists and genetic studies suggest about that more complicated picture.

March 24, 2026

March 7, 2026

Alveopora or flowerpot coral – how to tell the difference

March 7, 2026

They look alike at first glance, but Alveopora and flowerpot corals are not the same. The easiest way to tell them apart is to count the tentacles.

March 7, 2026

February 27, 2026

Norfolk’s lagoonal reef – the 2025 report, in plain English

February 27, 2026

We now have the 2025 Norfolk Island reef health report, so I’m taking the opportunity to translate it into plain English here. Sadly, it’s more of the same story in Emily and Slaughter Bays – a reef that can cope with some stress, but is being asked to cope with too much, too often.

February 27, 2026

Out on A Swim

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