Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Wrong Algae & Friendly Fishes, Shelving Beach Reef

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It rained a lot today, on Great Keppel Island.   I was nevertheless determined to walk around to Shelving Beach reef for the low tide.  I am so glad that I did.  The visibility under-the-water was exceptionally good as you will see from my underwater photographs.

View from the walking track down to Shelving Beach reef. Taken this afternoon with my Olympus TG6, that is actually an underwater camera.  The  outline of the reef is obvious as a darker siloutte.

I had the reef entirely to myself – except for all the fishes.

This grouper posed for me, keeping very still.
I asked the fish to stay in position while I took a wide angle shot, and he/she obliged.
And then I tried from another angle. It was a distraction from what looked in the distance like a reef being lost to macro algae, the algae that smoother the corals.

I was rather alarmed at all the algae.  Not the good micro algae, the zooxanthellae, that live in the polyps of healthy corals.   Rather, much of this reef was being lost to the macro algae that come after coral bleaching, smothering the corals.

My wide-angle photographs of this reef from today show algae smoothing hard corals.

Except when I looked more closely, I could see there was actually a lot of new growth, and everything else.

I especially liked seeing all the solitary corals, the Fungia species, apparently unaffected by the macro algae all about.

When some boys came scrambling over the rocks from Fisherman’s Beach, and I got out of the water, we got a  photograph together.

And then it was time to go back over the ridge, back to my tent, and I managed a selfie along the way.

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Comments

  1. Graham Miller says

    I love the continuing updating. I appreciate your commentary and photos as much as the very, very large number of your followers. Thank you Jennifer.

  2. Dixie Nott says

    Good you got a day of good visibility Jennifer. Makes me want to buy flippers and go look at Great Keppel reef. So accessible and not to be missed.

  3. Gerard Cross says

    Great work Jennifer and I hope that AIMS researchers get to see these close up observations rather than relying on the flights over at 120 m

  4. Kevin says

    Gerard, AIMS already knows. They are in the business of monitoring, extensive surveys, analysis and reporting.

    “Aerial surveys over the Keppel Islands in February observed extensive bleaching in nearshore areas consistent with increased sea surface temperatures and accumulated heat exposure in the wider southern region. In-water surveys conducted by AIMS are continuing in order to assess the severity of the bleaching. “