Coral Sea Foundation

14/10/2026

10/10/2026

The Wall of Mouths. Where ocean currents meet coral reefs, plankton feeding fishes aggregate to harvest the billions of tiny organisms that go with the flow.

This is such an important link in the food chain, injecting open ocean productivity into the reef ecosystem, that almost every family of reef fishes have evolved planktivorous species.

Plankton is a highly nutritious food source however harvesting it comes with significant challenges. The individual food items are very small and hard to see, requiring planktivorous fishes to have excellent close vision. To get access to the best plankton resource, fishes must swim high in the water column exposing themselves to predation. Schooling behaviour offsets this risk.

Coralseafoundation.net

08/10/2026

Guess where? Hints: Coral Triangle, around 9°S.


coralseafoundation.net

07/10/2026

Feather-duster worms - Sabellidae - from the Coral Triangle.

coralseafoundation.net

05/10/2026

On our recent expedition to Tunnung Island in Papua New Guinea, we found 14 species of butterflyfish inhabiting the reefs around the island.

Butterflyfish were counted as part of our wider suite of reef fish surveys, and the top 7 most abundant species are shown in order here (brackets equal total number seen across 16 x 50m transects):
Chaetodon lunulatus — 22
Chaetodon ephippium — 9
Chaetodon baronessa — 7
Chaetodon ornatissimus — 5
Chaetodon lunula — 5
Chaetodon rafflesii — 5
Chaetodon semeion — 4

LMMA management by Clem's place and the Tunnung Island Community in partnership with the Coral Sea Foundation and Sea Women of Melanesia-PNG.

coralseafoundation.net

🇵🇬

27/09/2026

Snapshots of Tunnung - 2. We recently completed a marine science and conservation expedition to Tunnung Island on the north-west coast of Lavongai, Papua New Guinea, in partnership with Clem's place and the Sea Women of Melanesia-PNG.

This beautiful island sits just 2 degrees south of the equator and the Tunnung Locally Managed Marine Area is an important hotspot of biodiversity in this region. We collected over 40GB of aerial, terrestrial and underwater video during our expedition as we will be sequentially releasing these "Snapshots of Tunnung" over the coming weeks, to highlight the significant conservation value of this area.

Many thanks to our program partners and donors:
Olgeta Foundation and the crew of MV Golden Dawn
Tanka Foundation
Paul Angell Foundation
Sall Family Foundation
Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco
Oceans5

coralseafoundation.net

Music by the Tunnung Island String Band.