This weekend the forecast was looking good to get out for a snorkel, but having planned a climb for Saturday it had to be a Sunday morning dip. The conditions were supposed to be so good that I had suggested Lisa come out with me, and it would have been her first snorkel this season. Sunday morning she was however far too comfortable in bed with a good book, so I wandered down by myself to take a dip. The forecast had got it wrong and there was a landward breeze that was starting to pick up and the small but not insignificant waves were starting to roll in:
It was now or not at all this weekend, so I went in and bobbed about. The longer I stayed in the choppier it got and my snorkel occasionally took in water. It was a very low tide today and that meant I drifted out a bit further than I would normally when it is not so clear. There wasn’t much to see until I came back up from a duck dive and looked in the right direction to see a family of three dolphins effortlessly glide past me. There was a calf and two adults, no more than five metres from me but in today’s conditions the images I got aren’t that great and they quickly disappeared out of sight:
We get bottlenose dolphins along our coast and they grow to over 2m. I have not come across them very often when in the water but each time I do they seem very big. The calves are usually born between February and May and are approx. 80cm long, and the one I saw probably bigger than that so maybe last year’s young. Despite such interactions, as today’s, only lasting seconds it created a real buzz that lasts all day. Hopefully one day I’ll get to see them in clearer waters and if I am really lucky they won’t be in such a rush to keep cruising down the coastline:
The experience made me keen to stay out and check out what else there may be to see, although I have to admit that I was quietly hoping the dolphins would come back along. Often we see them cruise back and forth along a stretch of the coast so it was possible. In the meantime I came across three Horseshoe Leatherjackets. Unlike previous times when they haven’t got very close this time they kept circling under me. However, when I dived down they would move away and keep a safe distance. Facing me as if to keep an eye on my next move, while their prominent dorsal spin, above the head, was moved into the upright position:
These fish can grow up to 60cm long, but I have only ever seem them at about 30cm. The dorsal spin is serrated on the rear edge, no doubt a defence mechanism but it is unclear to me why only the rear edge would be serrated. I’ve read that there is a second much smaller spine, located immediately behind the main spine, which can lock the main spin in the upright position. They were just over a nice bit of reef covered with kelp and I dived down several times checking underneath it. I found a variety of other fish hiding in dark crevices not brave enough to venture out, so I let them be and moved on:
After swimming round the reef and weed for some time and seeing nothing more than the usual suspects, it was time to start heading towards the beach access track and over the open sandy areas. The dolphins had not passed by me again, or at least not while I was looking, so I was quietly hoping to see a ray after coming across both a Smooth Stingray and Bight Stingaree during my last snorkel. I was not to be disappointed, and came across a Southern Eagle Ray. The wide wings, wider than they were long, and angular raised head are clear signs of which ray this was:
I was interested to see it was in what seemed to be a sitting position, something I have not seen before. I stayed on the surface watching for some time, not wanting to dive down and disturb whatever it may have been up to. I’ve been unable to find out why it was in this position, but it stayed there for a considerable time. However, after a while I could sense that it was getting nervous with me hoovering above. So I decided to go down and see if it would let me get a bit closer:
Not surprisingly it was off, I didn’t even bother to try and keep up with it. Instead checked out where it had been “sitting” upright, but found no obvious signs as to what it was doing. Eagle Rays like many rays have venomous barbs, but that is not why I didn’t follow after it. The main reason was that they are very fast swimmers and it would have left me for dust. They have even been known to jump out of the water. While the reason for jumping is not fully understood, there are some theories such as getting rid of parasites and females avoiding interested packs of males:
Before I reached the shore I came across a Western Smooth Boxfish and also this beautiful male Shaw Cowfish. Box and cow fish are closely related and are often confused, they both have a hard shelled body made up of bony plates that gives it the distinctive boxy shape. Being benthic feeders I often see them in these open spaces, as they blow jets of water at the sandy floor hoping to expose prey. I mostly see the female of this species so it was nice to come across the very colourful male for a change:
Sandbagged 