{"id":335439,"date":"2024-07-03T19:13:14","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T17:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335439"},"modified":"2024-07-03T19:13:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T17:13:16","slug":"seeing-barren-island-corals-and-fish-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335439","title":{"rendered":"Seeing Barren Island Corals \u2013 and Fish.\u00a0 Part 1."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Jennifer Marohasy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0By\u00a0jennifer<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I had such a good weekend, over at Great Keppel Island completing a PADI Advanced Open Water course with Hayley and Ines from Keppel Dive.   We managed five dives over the two days, but I only had my camera with me for the last dive, when we dove Barren Island Reef South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stepped into the water right on midday and it was a sunny day \u2013 so there was no shortage of sunlight, but down 10 metres everything was a haze of blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water absorbs light in the longer wavelengths, so by ten metres down everything is a haze of blue, unless I have the camera light on and the coral is in the foreground.   Only then, will the red corals at close range look red \u2013 because other wise the water will have absorbed all the red in the visible spectrum from the sunlight and also from my camera light.  I need to get close to the corals and the fish and I need to have my light on, to see their colours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
That juvenile Red Emperor up close but with my light turned off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Karen Klemp, in a comment at my last blog post<\/a>, has suggested that I can\u2019t see the corals from 150 metres in the air because I may not<\/em> have the correct camera settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, when visibility is only about 8 metres under the water and the corals are down about 10 metres it is just not going to be possible to see the corals from an aerial survey whatever your camera settings.  It is not possible to see the corals until you get into the water and go down some few metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you are down ten metres, where the corals are at Barren Island Reef, it is best to turn on your light, even if it is a sunny day, if you want to see the true colour of the corals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A macro-setting on the camera is necessary to see the detail of the corallites, and with my light on, it is possible to see come of the colour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I was mostly focused on what I needed to do to pass the PADI Advanced Open Water course \u2013 including tying knots underwater and lifting \u2018lost equipment\u2019 to the surface with a harness etcetera, etcetera \u2013 all the while I was also on the lookout, scanning and making some assessment of the state of the corals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dived some of these same reefs in April <\/a>and you may remember Secret Cove, Wreck Beach and Bald Rock where particularly badly bleached \u2013 most of the corals, especially the branching Acropora spp.<\/em> were stark white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now there is colour back in many of the same Acropora spp.<\/em> but there is also a lot of mortality.   I would hazard a guess \u2013 that across these five dives and including corals from the two dives that I did about ten days ago at Outer Rock \u2013 perhaps one third of the area of coral, perhaps one third of the coral cover is now dead or dying from the bleaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is a lot of coral.   This last summer has not<\/em> been good for many of the corals, for coral cover, at the Great Barrier Reef.   If we are to know the natural cycles of death and regeneration, then we need to acknowledge that not every summer is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Coming up at the end of the dive, Barren Island Reef on Sunday afternoon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had such a good weekend, over at Great Keppel Island completing a PADI Advanced Open Water course with Hayley and Ines from Keppel Dive. We managed five dives over the two days, but I only had my camera with me for the last dive, when we dove Barren Island Reef South.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":335440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829523,691829524,691819663,691821787],"class_list":{"0":"post-335439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-barren-island-reef","9":"tag-coral-colour","10":"tag-coral-cover","11":"tag-corals","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/00F-LemonDamsel-P6300096.jpg?fit=2048%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1pgj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":319930,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=319930","url_meta":{"origin":335439,"position":0},"title":"Stark White \u2013 Fields of Bleached Acropora, Great Keppel Island","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"22\/04\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Scuba tank on my back, I rolled backwards off the Keppel Dive boat at Bald Rock reef yesterday into the ocean. I was hoping that as with previous claims of mass bleaching, this was exaggerated.","rel":"","context":"In \"Bald Rock reef\"","block_context":{"text":"Bald Rock reef","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bald-rock-reef"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4190265-copy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4190265-copy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4190265-copy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4190265-copy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4190265-copy-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":334385,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334385","url_meta":{"origin":335439,"position":1},"title":"Anemones Push Through Collapsed Corals","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"24\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Many of the hard corals fringing the Keppel Islands bleached stark white last summer. Specifically, the fields of branching Acropora spp. went stark white. This was likely caused by a combination of high-water temperatures, low tides and no wind. I had never seen anything quite like it before. The water\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Acropora spp.\"","block_context":{"text":"Acropora spp.","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=acropora-spp"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/01-Feature-smallerP6200435.jpg?fit=1200%2C1020&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/01-Feature-smallerP6200435.jpg?fit=1200%2C1020&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/01-Feature-smallerP6200435.jpg?fit=1200%2C1020&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/01-Feature-smallerP6200435.jpg?fit=1200%2C1020&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/01-Feature-smallerP6200435.jpg?fit=1200%2C1020&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":321805,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=321805","url_meta":{"origin":335439,"position":2},"title":"Wrecked. Day 3. Part 3.\u00a0 Great Keppel Island, April 2024","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"24\/04\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"According to the Bureau of Meteorology, it was going to storm on Sunday. Instead, the day broke calm and sunny. And so, Jenn (not me, there is another one) and M-J from Keppel Dive, took a few of us around to the very exposed Wreck Beach facing due east. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"April 2024\"","block_context":{"text":"April 2024","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=april-2024"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4210004-cropped.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4210004-cropped.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4210004-cropped.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4210004-cropped.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/0P4210004-cropped.jpg?fit=1200%2C467&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":309528,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=309528","url_meta":{"origin":335439,"position":3},"title":"Fancy Fins Didn\u2019t Help with the Visibility","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/03\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"According to the mainstream media it\u2019s the southern Great Barrier Reef that has been hit hardest with coral bleaching, and particularly the corals in the Capricorn region that includes Great Keppel Island.","rel":"","context":"In \"Coral reefs\"","block_context":{"text":"Coral reefs","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=coral-reefs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-189.png?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-189.png?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-189.png?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-189.png?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image-189.png?fit=1200%2C849&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":335589,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335589","url_meta":{"origin":335439,"position":4},"title":"How Things Change \u2013 the Weather and Coral Cover","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"For sure the Great Barrier Reef will recover. But it is also important to acknowledge that the famous coral, that featured in our short film \u2018Cafe Latte Coral\u2019, it is important to acknowledge that earlier this year it was ripped from the reef crest, lifted-up, turned-over and drop-over the edge.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"coral cover\"","block_context":{"text":"coral cover","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=coral-cover"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Annotated-P4190210-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Annotated-P4190210-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Annotated-P4190210-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Annotated-P4190210-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Annotated-P4190210-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":336466,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=336466","url_meta":{"origin":335439,"position":5},"title":"Squid, Sharks & the Sassy Angelfish at Outer Rock on Friday","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"15\/07\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Topside it was a clear sunny day, and on the way back to Great Keppel Island, from the boat we spotted them breeching. So beautiful.","rel":"","context":"In \"coral\"","block_context":{"text":"coral","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=coral"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Feature-SassyP7120368.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Feature-SassyP7120368.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Feature-SassyP7120368.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Feature-SassyP7120368.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0Feature-SassyP7120368.jpg?fit=1200%2C797&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335439"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335452,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335439\/revisions\/335452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/335440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}