N. GBR - Pink (AU91111)

Setting

A reef platform that appeared scoured from the surface, stretching 9-11 m deep for hundreds of meters in every direction, this Preservation Zone reef fought back hard on this dive — a 2-3 knot current made the going tough, though visibility held at a clear 30 m. This is one of the GBR's most tightly protected zones: no entry without a permit, no take of any kind. The expedition's own site table classifies AU91111 as an outer barrier reef on an exposed aspect.

General benthic features

Alongside the hard coral already reported for this site, the same transects recorded 4.0% crustose coralline algae, 11% turf, 2.4% macroalgae, and 2.2% cyanobacteria. Non-living substrate came to 11% dead coral, 6.6% rubble, and 2.8% sand. These figures come from the expedition's own 933-site benthic master and are survey results, not photographic estimates.

Coral cover

• Reference: Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, Global Reef Expedition (in situ transect)
• Coral cover measured 36% in the point-count survey, built from the shallow-water 'usual suspects': Pocillopora eydouxi, Stylophora pistillata, Pocillopora damicornis, Acropora, and Isopora, with patches of red cyanobacteria and algae-covered pavement in between.
• The one wide benthic frame, taken low in the current, shows the survey tape running across that flat platform of pale pavement and rubble with scattered small colonies (e.g., Image 1).
  1
• Transect mean 36 ± 4.4% SE (n = 9 transects; Living Oceans Foundation per-transect benthic data); the headline above is the expedition's station value.

Stressors

Less happily, his notes flag the needle corals: on his second transect (9.6 m) "S. caliendrum/hystrix both look terrible," and on his fifth (about 10 m) he listed Pocillopora damicornis, P. verrucosa, Seriatopora hystrix, and S. caliendrum with the note "all look sick/bleached." Many recruits at the site were dead, though these were not counted; his first and third transects also crossed patches of red cyanobacteria. No crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) or other corallivores evident.

Fish and other fauna

A striking yellow-and-purple coral eel was the highlight sighting. Paired fish transects recorded about 32 fish species per transect and about 7.9 kg per 100 m2 of biomass.

Comparisons with other data

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