Normanby Island in North

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

is part of the

Frankland Islands Frankland Group is a national park in Queensland, Australia, 1353 km northwest of Brisbane. The five continental islands of the Frankland Group are High Island, Normanby Island, Mabel Island, Round Island and Russell Island, which lie ...

30 km north-east of

Babinda Babinda is a rural town and locality in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Babinda had a population of 1,253 people. Geography Babinda is located south of Cairns. The town is noted for its proximity to Queensla ...

, and south-east of

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

. The Frankland Islands are teeming with permanent and migratory marine life, especially the

green sea turtle The green sea turtle (''Chelonia mydas''), also known as the green turtle, black (sea) turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus ''Chelonia''. Its range exten ...

which nests on the island. Normanby Island, part of the Frankland Islands group offers a comprehensive reef system with a tropical island. The islands are very popular with reef tour operators working from Cairns. It is around 7 hectares or 0.07 square km in size.

Australian Institute of Marine Science

Randomly located sites on the western sides of the Frankland Islands were surveyed early in 1995, and three sites with permanent markers were set up on the exposed eastern and the sheltered western faces in 1998. These sites were surveyed in January 1999, November 1999 and December 2001. Sites on both faces of these islands were surveyed using fixed transects at the height of the bleaching in April 1998. Over 60% of the hard corals bleached. All coral groups except poritids were extensively bleached. Poritids were only slightly affected, with less than 10% of colonies bleaching. Coral death after bleaching led to significant reductions in the cover of all coral groups. Pocilloporids were most severely affected with almost 100% mortality, but even the cover of poritids declined slightly. Bleaching in 1998 reduced average hard coral cover on Frankland Is. fringing reefs from 67% to 37%. Reductions were similar on both the eastern and western reefs. Over 70% of soft corals (primarily

Sinularia ''Sinularia'' is a genus of soft coral in the family Alcyoniidae. They are commonly known as leather corals and currently have 166 described species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an orga ...

spp.) also bleached, but these apparently recovered and soft coral cover increased slightly between the 1998 and 1999 surveys. Eastern reefs were also affected by the

crown-of-thorns starfish The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), ''Acanthaster planci'', is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spine ...

, ''

Acanthaster planci The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), ''Acanthaster planci'', is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thorn-like spines ...

'' (COTS) in 1998. Following the losses from bleaching and COTS, a few small pocilloporids recruits were recorded on both sides of the islands in December 2000.

References

Islands of Queensland {{Queensland-geo-stub

Australian Institute of Marine Science

See also

References