I didn’t get out for a snorkel this morning, despite the conditions looking good. Instead I decided to have a climb on my boulder wall, which was great fun in a different way. Then the day got away with us and before we knew it mid-afternoon had arrived. We then decided to head down to the beach and despite it looking a little choppy the water seemed clear enough to head out:
I seem to be seeing a heap of giant snails in their bailer shells at the moment, with this one having a shell at least half a meter long. The swell was pushing the weed back and forth quite vigorously so it was hard to stay down and wait for the perfect picture. I really liked the algae growing on the shell itself, and unseen in this image there was also a large shoal of tiny fish bobbing about in between the patches of weed:
As I came up a good sized shoal of Weeping Toada swam under me and into the current. I would have liked to have dived down into them to get a close up shot, but there was no way I could keep up with them against the current. Instead I bobbed about above them and enjoyed watching he light reflect of them, as they wove their way ever onwards. After leaving them to carry on without me I spied an unusual movement and went down to check it out:
Luckily for me this octopus had decided to take shelter from the swell under a shell, which also happened to be in an open spot so my view was not obscured by weed. These creatures are very intelligent and would normally wait for me to break eye contact, and then be off like a shot. But the conditions must have been not ideal for him and so I got to have a great opportunity to see him and dove down several times:
I didn’t find too much else but bobbed about being buffeted by the waves and occasionally having to clear the snorkel as a wave went over my head. This little Biscuit Star lodged in a crevice and partly concealed by weed did catch my eye. Yet another species of sea star to add to my growing list, and a very pretty one at that. I then headed back to shoe and left this and probably a heap of other treasures to hold on tight to their purchase:
Hope you can hold on to see what I might find on my next snorkel,
Sandbagged 