From The Scientists 12/03/06 - Percy Islands

We arrived in the Percy Islands early on Sunday morning (4 a.m). We woke up in a beautiful bay with a white sandy beach and palm trees. We did not do any dives today, instead we jumped into the zodiac and went to a number of islands for snorkelling surveys. The Percy Isles are continental (rocky) islands and so the corals are fringing reefs - not like the swains which are coral cays and patch reefs. Fringing reefs form along the rocky edges of islands, and often are characterised by high diversity of corals. There was not very high coral cover (5-20%) at any of shallow reefs that we inspected. There were, however, definite signs that this area has been subject to unusually warm sea temperatures, with approximately 30% of the corals bleached.

We took the opportunity while we were at anchor to explore the mangrove lagoon on Middle Percy Island. This lovely little lagoon is a popular anchorage for passing yachts, and an important habitat for a large variety of plants and animals, including many species of reef fish.