N. GBR - Green (AUMO97)

Setting

Sits in a no-take Marine National Park Zone, where entry is allowed but nothing may be taken.

General benthic features

Monkman Reef's first dive is a showcase for two reef-building workhorses: Pavona cactus and Porites cylindrica, which carpet the 4-8 m band at close to full coral cover in many spots (e.g., Image 1, Image 3).

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Deeper transects (10-16 m), which Anderson estimated by eye at 30-50% (one reached 70-80%), added Pachyseris, Goniopora, Leptoseris, branching Acropora, and massive Porites to the mix, with one particularly dense transect hitting 70-80% cover around a thicket of Acropora and Paraclavarina (e.g., Image 2).

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Coral cover

• Reference: Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Global Reef Expedition (in situ transect)
• The expedition's in situ point-count transects at this station recorded 68% live coral cover against 8.3% total algal cover.
• Transect mean 68 ± 13% SE (n = 3 transects; Living Oceans Foundation per-transect benthic data); the headline above is the expedition's station value.

Stressors

Nothing here flagged any coral stress: no bleaching, disease, or crown-of-thorns starfish turned up on any of the six transects.

Fish and other fauna

The fish life matched the coral for spectacle — five or six gray reef sharks cruised the site, along with two genuinely huge grouper and a resident stingray.

Comparisons with other data

No prior survey data from this site. If you would like to share yours, please email us.