Fungia coral in the aquarium as the lights come on
Posts Tagged ‘Coral’
Fungia awakes
May 26th, 2010
Why we need marine reserves
May 24th, 2010Here’s another TED Talk, this time discussing coral reefs, overfishing, and the effectiveness of marine reserves.
Another addition (not through fission/cloning)
August 1st, 2009
Fungia coral skeleton (Wikipedia commons)
Quite a few times in the past I have found flat disc shaped coral skeletons on the beach, and on a couple of times I have seen them alive out on the reef, looking much the same but with some flesh and colour. I had assumed that that’s what they always looked like.
Yesterday I was in at Cairns Marine wanting to buy some coral for one of my tanks, and had my eye on a particular type I had seen. They’re a mass of writhing tentacles that sits on the sand. Pictured below is the one I bought. The tips are a little greener to the eye than the camera captures.
Fungia coral
It was only when the salesperson picked up the coral and briefly turned it over that I realised that the two were the same. The live corals I have seen out on the reef have always had the tentacles withdrawn.
This is the first specific purchase of coral for me, though I do have a couple of small pieces of hard coral on some live rock that I had bought previously.
Aquarium life
April 28th, 2009
Possibly a coral from the family Mussidae
Green seaturtle
December 4th, 2008
Green sea turtle (Chelonia midas) at Low Isles
Here’s another one of my favourite photos from the past (click the photo for a larger version). It was taken off the Low Isles on a trip out on Quicksilver’s Wavedancer. Snorkelling at the Low Isles is very good, with lots of turtles (mainly green and hawksbill), great soft corals, and all the fish you would expect. The only problem is that visibility can be a bit low due to its proximity to the mainland. If you want to see turtles, it’s the best location I’ve been to yet.
You will notice that the green sea turtle isn’t actually green. It gets its common name from the colour of its fat, and I’m not in a rush to photograph that. Unfortunately green sea turtles, like many species of turtle, are endangered. Their main threat is, of course, man. Many are killed as bycatch in fishing nets and on longlines, other die after ingesting rubbish such as plastic bags and cigarette butts, and others are hunted as food.
Some turtle links:
- Cape York Turtle Rescue in Mapoon
- Australian Seabird Rescue in Ballina operates turtle rescue and rehabilitation facilities
- Sea World Research and Rescue on the Gold Coast
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville
Unfortunately the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre doesn’t have a website.
Another list of things that have caught my eye
November 10th, 2008- The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 caused severe damage to many reefs in the region. Pak Dodent, a dive shop operator on an island near Sumatra, set about replanting his reef using cuttings from an unaffected reef. After three years of effort, including cleaning algae off new coral with a toothbrush, the results are apparently rather spectacular. A number of news sites are reporting on the project, but the Telegraph is the only one I saw with photos.
- Science Daily reports on a study on the drinking habits of sea snakes. They have found that sea snakes do not drink salt water and filter out the salt, but drink fresh water from creeks and rivers or from fresh water lensing on the surface of the salt water after rain. The researcher also suggest that the increased lensing in lagoons may be why these areas are often home to good populations of sea snakes. The report also mentions possible population declines and extinctions of snake species at Ashmore Reef as possibly being due to the drought. Ashmore is a sea snake fancier’s delight, and when I worked at HMAS Cairns a number of sailors who had been to Ashmore commented on how unpleasantly common they were there.
- Jamie Seymour, the James Cook University biologist who spends much of his time researching jellyfish, has spoken out about the lack of funding for Irukandji research. The article comments on an Irukandji breeding grounds behind Double Island, of which I wasn’t aware. This would be one reason Palm Cove, Kewarra and Clifton Beaches tend to be more frequently closed than Yorkeys. Another is possibly the additional silt in the water here from the Barron River and Trinity Inlet.
Reef image: Acropora
October 14th, 2008
A small wrasse swims over acropora corals
Reef image: Paradise Reef
October 5th, 2008
Paradise Reef - The Wall
Here’s an old photo from a trip out to Paradise Reef on Passions of Paradise. Click on the image to download a larger version suitable for a Windows desktop background.
