heron island
field guide
Inspired by the tradition of species identification charts and dive ID slates, this field guide highlights a selection of the extraordinary species found on and around Heron Island.
Each species is accompanied by its common and scientific name, inviting us to look closely and celebrate the joy of observing, identifying and learning about the natural world.
By recognising the inhabitants that share this place, we begin to understand the intricate connections between them and the environments they call home. The more we notice, understand and value this diversity, the more we can appreciate what makes Heron Island special and our role in protecting it.
It was an absolute privilege to paint this piece. I got to spend my days spotting species around the island and then illustrating them on the wall of the Heron Island Research Station library. I hope the mural inspires curiosity and excitement about the natural world.
Here’s some information about a few of my favourite species featured in the mural (scroll to the bottom for merch):
epaulette shark.
This is a shark that doesn’t just swim, it walks. Around Heron Island’s shallow coral reefs, the epaulette shark uses its muscular, paddle-like pectoral and pelvic fins to crawl across the seafloor and navigate between coral heads and isolated tidal pools. This unusual ability is perfectly suited to life on a reef flat, where falling tides can leave shallow pools warm and low in oxygen (Porter et al., 2022).
But walking is only part of what makes this small Great Barrier Reef shark remarkable. Epaulette sharks are exceptionally tolerant of hypoxia (low oxygen), allowing them to survive conditions that would be stressful or even fatal to many other sharks. Research on sharks collected directly from Heron Island found that they could maintain their metabolism as oxygen levels dropped to extraordinarily low concentrations (Routley et al., 2002). In effect, the epaulette shark is built for a reef environment that can change dramatically over the course of a single tide.
clown triggerfish.
Few reef fish look quite as spectacular as the clown triggerfish, with a jet-black body splashed with brilliant white spots, a yellow-ringed mouth and bold markings around its eyes. Yet, beneath that striking appearance is a remarkably well-equipped reef predator.
The clown triggerfish has a set of powerful jaws and teeth adapted for tackling hard-bodied prey such as sea urchins, crabs, molluscs and other reef invertebrates (Matsuura, 2001). It is also equipped with the remarkable feature that gives triggerfish their name: the second spine of the first dorsal fin can lock the larger first spine upright. This allows the fish to wedge itself securely into a crevice, making it much harder for a predator to pull it out (Froese & Pauly, 2026).
Despite its flamboyant appearance, the clown triggerfish is generally a solitary and somewhat secretive reef inhabitant, making an encounter with this striking reef dweller a rare and memorable glimpse of one of the ocean’s most beautifully adapted, and unmistakable, fish.
At first glance, the black noddy might seem like an unassuming seabird, but look closer and you’ll find one of Heron Island’s most important, and charismatic, residents. With its dark plumage, pale forehead and distinctive call, black noddies gather in noisy colonies high among the trees, where they build their nests from grass, seaweed and other vegetation (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2026).
Unlike many seabirds that nest directly on the ground, black noddies are tree-nesters, making the vegetation of coral cays an essential part of their breeding habitat. Heron Island has historically supported tens of thousands of black noddy nests. (Australian Museum, 2018).
Black noddies feed at sea, often surface-dipping for small fish and squid, before returning to their island colonies to rest and raise their chicks (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2025). In so doing, they transport nutrients from the ocean back onto the island. It has been estimated that black noddies deposit around 45 tonnes of guano on Heron Island each year, helping transfer marine nutrients into the terrestrial ecosystem (Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, 2012). This makes the black noddy an important link between the reef and island ecosystems, with its nesting colonies helping sustain the very environment in which they breed.
black noddy.
bigfin reef squid.
Gliding through the shallow waters of Heron Island, the bigfin reef squid is a master of both movement and disguise.
What makes the bigfin reef squid particularly remarkable is its ability to communicate through changing patterns of colour and light. These changes are controlled by the nervous system and can occur rapidly, allowing squid to signal to one another during courtship, competition and other social interactions (Lin et al., 2017). Rather than simply changing colour for camouflage, their shifting patterns can act as a sophisticated visual language.
When danger strikes, the bigfin reef squid has an impressive escape plan. It can release a cloud of dark ink while simultaneously jetting away. Research has shown that the ink can interfere with a predator’s attack and may also contain compounds that make the squid less appealing to eat (Derby, 2014).
For a creature that spends much of its life exposed in open water, this combination of camouflage, colour-changing displays, ink and explosive jet propulsion gives the bigfin reef squid an impressive toolkit for survival.
MURAL MERCH.
References:
Australian Museum. (2018). You've got to be joking! Australian Natural History, 37(3), 136–137. https://museum-publications.australian.museum/media/dd/Uploads/Documents/38623/ams370_vXXII_03_LowRes.b66bdd4.pdf
Derby, C. D. (2014). Cephalopod ink: Production, chemistry, functions and applications. Marine Drugs, 12(5), 2700–2730. https://doi.org/10.3390/md12052700
Froese, R., & Pauly, D. (Eds.). (2026). Balistoides conspicillum (Bloch & Schneider, 1801), clown triggerfish. FishBase. https://www.fishbase.se/summary/Balistoides-conspicillum.html
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. (2012). A vulnerability assessment for the Great Barrier Reef: Offshore and pelagic foraging seabirds. Australian Government.
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. (2025). Reef 2050 Integrated Monitoring and Reporting Program: Seabirds report. Australian Government. https://elibrary.gbrmpa.gov.au/
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. (2026). Seabirds and shorebirds of the Great Barrier Reef. Australian Government. https://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/learn/animals/seabirds-and-shorebirds-great-barrier-reef
Lin, C.-Y., Tsai, Y.-C., & Chiao, C.-C. (2017). Quantitative analysis of dynamic body patterning reveals the grammar of visual signals during the reproductive behavior of the oval squid Sepioteuthis lessoniana. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 5, 30. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2017.00030
Matsuura, K. (2001). Balistidae—Triggerfishes. In K. E. Carpenter & V. H. Niem (Eds.), The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific (Vol. 6, pp. 3911–3928). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Porter, M. E., Hernandez, A. V., Gervais, C. R., & Rummer, J. L. (2022). Aquatic walking and swimming kinematics of neonate and juvenile epaulette sharks. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 62(6), 1710–1724. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac127
Routley, M. H., Nilsson, G. E., & Renshaw, G. M. C. (2002). Exposure to hypoxia primes the respiratory and metabolic responses of the epaulette shark to progressive hypoxia. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 131(2), 313–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1095-6433(01)00484-6