REEF CHAT

Above image taken by Darren Miller aboard Divers Den’s Reef Quest on December 9 at Saxon Reef.

Location:  Frankland Islands.  Visibility:  10-25m

Site: The fringing reef of Normanby Island has about 90% coral cover with a very high diversity of corals and fish. Iconic to this reef are the clown anemonefish with anemones including the blue giant carpet anemone. There is a large community of green turtles using the island as a nesting ground. Reef-building stony corals are predominant and many soft corals including finger leather coral and mushroom soft coral can be seen.

Health: This island fringing reef is close to the mainland exposing the corals to extreme conditions including the sun, low oxygen and altered acidity levels resulting in very resilient coral. Bleaching has been minimal and recovery very strong. 
>> Find out more:  www.franklandislands.com.au  |  >> Read more

Reef Initiatives on the Land

Landholders in the Tully and Johnstone basins are working with Terrain Natural Resource Management to trial a mix of actions to reduce nutrient and pesticide loads entering the Great Barrier Reef. A recommendation of the Great Barrier Reef Water Science Taskforce, the three-year Wet Tropics Major Integrated Project is about people living in the Wet Tropics steering a course for the Reef. It has the potential to become a blueprint for Reef protection.   >> Read more

Marine Science Update

Photo courtesy:  Gary Cranitch Queensland Museum

Scientists have achieved a breakthrough in the quest to discover what makes some corals the ultimate survivors in the face of climate change. Great Barrier Reef Foundation Managing Director Anna Marsden said Seaquence, the world’s largest coral genomics sequencing project, had successfully sequenced a whole coral organism for the first time. This will help pinpoint which genes contribute to making some corals more resilient than others.  >> Read more

Reef Management Update

Photo courtesy:  GBRMPA

More than 32,000 sightings of protected species and significant events such as the coral spawning on the Great Barrier Reef have been reported to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in the past eight years. These reports were made by tourism operators, Reef visitors and volunteer organisations through the Eye on the Reef program. Last month Lorenzo Ballarin from Spirit of Freedom reported seeing a whale shark. View the report.   >> Read more

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Reef Chat is distributed on the 3rd Thursday of each month. Please submit your Great Barrier Reef news to Reef Chat before the 2nd Thursday of every month.