Sea Research

Here we are getting ready to survey the reefs near the Bargara treated effluent outfall.

Avril checks out a large Diploastrea coral at Fitzroy Island near Cairns.

This large octopus was unafraid as Avril took its portrait.

Avril winds in a 50m survey tape after we have made a count of crown-of-thorns sea stars on Opal Reef off Port Douglas.

Avril photographs a coral garden on Holbourne Island off Bowen.

Colourful seastar in the deep sandy habitat between the coast and the offshore reefs.

Sieving sediment samples at Bargara.

Colourful damselfishes hover over a staghorn Acropora thicket at Holbourne Island.

Rich corals on a fringing reef around Gumbrell Island in the Whitsundays.

Fringing reefs around Hayman Island in the Whitsundays.

Rare sea cucumber or holothurian Thelenota rufolineata at Tijou Reef in the far-north.

Diving on the steep drop-off on a clear outer barrier reef.

School of beautiful blue tangs, aka 'dory', on the front of a northern outer barrier reef.

Beautiful patterns of the soft coral Sarcophyton on Keswick Island off Mackay.

The GBR is very close to potential pollution: Sun Metals near a tidal inlet at Townsville.