The sun was shining again last weekend so I did risk another snorkel and while it’s wasn’t all that clear just putting my head under water and checking out what I might find was refreshing. I came across a few more gems that are worth sharing, such as this image of the creature that lives inside razor shells. I managed to sneak up and snap a good shot before it sensed my presence and snapped shut:
The other cool find was this little Stingaree, and by itself was nothing amazing as I often see them. However, if you look more closely you will notice that there is also a Sand Flathead, which followed the Stingaree around. I wonder if it may be the same Stingaree that I saw last time with a fish companion, maybe this one prefers fish as friends:
Yesterday I decided to risk another dip but I timed it wrong and the clouds came in as I was in the water and it rained. I stayed out and did see an octopus in the open, but with the poor visibility and cloudy weather I wasn’t able to get an image. I duck dived down to it, but it shot away at lightning speed and I was unable to find it again:
It cleared up a few hours later so I went back out. With the sun penetrating the water, when I went down, I was able to see some cool things. I found another razor shell, camouflaged with weed growing all up its sides. Bobbing about on the surface some three to four meters up it is hard to spy these, so sometimes it pays to just keep ducking diving up and down to see what you might come across:
I was also able to get this clear image of a Western Smooth Boxfish, I see them regularly but they do not often let me get this close. For a bulky and not very streamlined fish they can really motor when they want to get away. I’ve found from experience it is futile to try and keep up with them. The blue tinge on the fins looks stunning when they catch the light:
I’ve also been pulling together a decent collection of images of the many corals and sponges here. I reckon this is a Leaf Plate Coral but will be happily corrected, the pink sponge make the image for me. I’ve tried to get a good image of this coral for ages but seeing it is usually under ledges or in rock holes it is hard to get to and the light is often not that great:
Now for somewhere different. Yesterday afternoon a mob of us went to a place called Castle Rock, the intention was to climb. But I’ve snorkelled there a long time back and had memories of masses of fish, so I brought both my underwater and rock gear with me. I was very pleased I did as the water was crystal clear. There is no reef to be seen and the rocky coastline gives way (underwater) to a sandy bay, this means there is no weed and less particles to be stirred up:
At my beach the bommies are limestone with lots of, crack, pockets and caves but these are made from smooth granite boulders. These large barnacles don’t have an issue with sticking to the smooth surfaces and when they die off the shells make the perfect home for other creatures. I’ll take a stab in the dark and say this is a Coral Shell, but what really caught my eye was the Blenny living inside the barnacle:
The two prominent antenna give Blenny away, and my guess is this is the one below is Yellow Horned Blenny. I’m not that sure about the one above but it may be the same. I’ve only seen these guys once before. Years back I found one in a large Turban Shell back at my usual beach. I happened to have picked up the shell and he popped out and darted away. So I was stoked to find not just one but a few of these guys here:
You may also see in the image above there is what I thought at the time to be a Goby, at the base of the barnacle. Having checked my books this may have been a Threefin. Both of these fish use their lower fins to hold onto the rock, like claws. They seem to jump about rather than swim as they hold onto the rock to avoid being swept off. I’ve included the image below to give you an idea of scale:
There were stacks of other fish about, such as these Zebra Fish. I spent a lot of time hovering above them just watching and while I did take a fair few images most are of solitary fish so I could try and identify them. I lost count of how many other fish I saw and was pleased that my memory of this place held true. It is so very different to my local beach, so I’ll have to get here again soon before it gets too cold:
There were many big shoals of fish, and out above the sandy bay were thousands of bait fish. It’s easy to see why this place is a favourite for people fishing. So one more image from Castle Rock of a shoal of small but very pretty fish. These seemed to change colour, as they swam past. A great way to leave these waters, as I made my way back to the others who were climbing, fishing and/or just chilling on the rocks:
Now for something completely different, it tipped down on us late yesterday and as I drove Elseya to work this morning the early sunlight on the cobwebs along this fence line caught my eye. Covered in water droplets it looked amazing, so I stopped on the way back to take a few images. For those who don’t like spiders I suggest you skip the image after this one:
There are hundreds of Golden Orb spiders on this fence. Both webs and spiders were covered in water making for some very specky watery images, which is the loose connection that I used to sneak these images in. So after this slight change of topic the image after this one will be back to snorkelling:
Today back at Peppy Beach Geoff joined me for my morning snorkel. After such a great three sessions yesterday I thought it would be worth another go today. We went to the River Mouth end, so not my usual spot. As we walked in we could see dolphins out there and also three young black swans. It looked relatively calm but it was hard to read whether the water would be clear or not:
Unfortunately it was not that great, but that didn’t stop us. We headed out probably further than I would have gone alone in these conditions. Partly as I knew there were some good bommies and reef out there so was keen to show Geoff them, as he hadn’t gone out to this section before:
While we didn’t see masses I did add a few new corals and sponges to my collection. Unfortunately I didn’t find any black nudibranchs, which was what I was hoping for. We bobbed about moving from bommie to bommie and going down to see what might surprise us. After half an hour we started to cool off and decided to head back to shore:
On the way back we came across a good sized stingray, the largest I have seen this season. So I followed it round for a while as it lazily wove around the rocks, and while I managed to get pretty close the light was not on my side to be able to get a good image. Finally I stopped and just watched it disappear into the soupy water:
Back onshore the three swans had also come out and where busily preening themselves. I’m still a little surprised when I see swans bobbing about on the ocean, as I associate them with fresh rather saltwater. That said these guys seemed very at home here so we left them to it and headed home for a well-deserved hot cuppa:
I’ll stop saying this will be the last snorkelling email of the season, as I seem to have proven myself wrong too many times…
Sandbagged 