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Underwater photo of a scuba diver following a school of orange and silver fishes

An electric blue fish with pink highlights and a fluoro yellow patch on its tail

A smiling young woman in a dark T-shirt and a fishing cap

A healthy looking tropical fish, with spotted body, showy fins, bordered in black at the back and a black stripe around its face

A middle-aged man wearing dark clothing, sunglasses and a bright red beanie holds a strand of kelp aloft

A scuba diver swims above a health kelp forest

A woman scuba diver measures the height of kelp growing underwater

A small school of black and white tropical fish swim past a branching coral

A middle-aged man with a grey beard, wearing a wetsuit, goggles and snorkel, emerges from the water, smiling

Two snorkellors record with lights on their underwater cameras

A brightly coloured tropical fish, with silver underbelly, electric blue band stretching from tip to tail & yellow above that

Young coral clusters forming on a rock under water off Sydney

Under-seascape with sea urchins taking shelter in nooks and crannies as plate coral grows above

A snorkeller shines a torch onto the sea floor, which is covered with turf algae

A silvery fish with a greenish tinge from its face back along its spine to its tail swimming in the water

A scuba diver places a cage over what appears to be new kelp sprouting amid turf algae

An underwater seascape that has been depleted and where turf algae spreads as kelp is devoured

A barren sea floor, where not only sea kelp has been stripped, but also turf algae by ravenous sea urchins

kelp and urchins

A plate coral in waters off Sydney provides shelter to a barren of hungry sea urchins

A young woman in a black wetsuit, carrying a green surfboard. She is standing on coffee rocks as waves break nearby

Clusters of sea urchins populate the sea floor, with one lonely strand of kelp remaining

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