This morning, as the girls were enjoying a bit of a Saturday morning lie, in I decided to wander down to beach for a snorkel. It was a bit cloudy so the light wasn’t that great but the beach was its usual (not) busy self and the sea was beautifully calm:
As I swam out I was greeted by many of the none stinging jelly fish that I have previously shared, if you look closely you’ll notice a mob of them in the picture below. I’ve been really surprised this year not to have encountered any stingers, and this is the first year I have not been stung while snorkelling. As I got to the weed I spotted a ray but before I could duck dive down he quickly swam off:
I was not put off and kept a close eye out and eventually found the little fella hidden in the weed, and have now identified him as a Bight Stingaree. I was lucky enough to then find two more during this snorkel, or maybe I had just accustomed my eyes to what to look for:
My next find had me very excited, I have seen nudibranchs once before many years ago when I didn’t have an underwater camera. Below finally is my first image of one, which is a harlequin nudibranchs of the Doridaceans suborder (there are four suborders in total). My coral reef book tells me it is a Chromodorididae. Funnily enough, and just like the Stingaree, I went on to find several more of these amazing fellas:
I had a good look round among the coral and many discarded shells and in one a small head poked out so I picked it up and kept hold of it until he showed himself. I know it is a Blenny but despite the very distinct spotted underside, colouration and yellow horns I haven’t been able to narrow it down. These fish often use empty shells for cover and as safe places to lay their eggs, with the males staying guard:
It was starting feel cold as I had been in the water for over half an hour, but then I saw a huge shoal of fish come my way. It was hard to gauge the number but I’d easily say in the thousands. I’ve seen a few shoals along Peppy Beach but never one this big, my first instinct was to pop my head out of the water to check for any fins that may have been following this mass of fish food, but the coast seemed clear:
I did a lot of duck diving through them and was able to get some great shots which allowed me to work out that they were Western Striped Trumpeters. It was awesome swimming through them, they didn’t seem to mind me but kept a safe enough distance so I was not able to reach out and touch them:
Watching them from above was also pretty cool, they seemed to cover the whole sea bed foraging for food like a swarm of locusts almost. As they looked for food in the weed and coral they seemed to be twisting their bodies to disturb the area to force any morsels of food to float out. As they writhed about what little light there was would reflect off their bodies making a pretty cool sight:
I was now getting too cold to stay in so I slowly worked my way back to shore but kept getting distracted with all the fish I kept spying. Mostly I just watched from above but here is one last snap I took of a fish I see every time I go out. These Truncate Coralfish have always been quick to hide and seem to stay close to nooks and crannies where they can escape too, but not this one:
Needless to say I am looking forward to my next snorkel and wonder what I’ll find next time.
Sandbagged 