Friday morning instead of stretching as soon as I got up, I prepared myself to head in for a swim. I was working today but wanted to get a swim in while the conditions looked favourable, as the weekend wasn’t looking to crash hot. As such I found myself getting into the water a little after 6am even before the sun had poked its head over the dunes. I half expected not to be able to see very well but there was enough light penetrating the shallow 3m or so to the sea bed. It was low tide, which was on my side:
I was again hoping for that early life that may have been out in the more dimpsy, as Lisa would describe the, conditions. While I wasn’t presented with lots of obvious fish life I did come across a few jelly fish that I have only seen once before off our beach. It looks like a plastic bag, and I’ve been told they are called handbag jellyfish although I can find no reference of them online. As a favourite food of sea turtles it is easy to see why plastic bags really are such a danger to them:
I spent a lot of time taking heaps of cool images of the jellyfish, like the Comb Jellyfish they have no tentacles and are covered is tiny hairs that rhythmically move. They catch the light as they seemingly pulse across its body making the jellyfish glide through the water. After a while I went in search of fish, no shoals but still plenty to see. I snuck up on a few to try and get those cheeky images that I have so often not managed to get. Again I was mostly thwarted, but I couldn’t resist including this image of a Magpie Morwong:
I scoured all areas of the sea bed including the weed, reef, sand patches and bare desolate rocky areas. It is all luck when you are out there and you need to be looking the right direction and be in the right place at the right time. There however also a degree of skill required to spy patterns and things that just don’t look right. Sure enough tucked up close to the patch of weed was one such sight. I knew straight away what I had found and that meant needing to take my time and not spook the creature that I knew would have seen me way before I saw it:
This octopus didn’t really have anywhere to go, the last one I spied slid under a rock shelf and was lost. This one tried to suck itself deeper into the little hollow but there was nothing covering it. So not wanting to scare it too much I got reasonably close, but avoided sticking my camera right in its face. The eyes on these creatures are very striking. Unlike the eyes of vertebrates, their nerve fibres run behind, and this means that more light can reach, the retina. This provides them with good vision, an real advantage for a marine predator:
It was a quick dip of no more than 30min. I could have happily stayed out there for longer but the clock was ticking and I did sadly have to get to work. Despite the shortness of the swim it was very worthwhile and I wonder now why I hadn’t done a before work dip before. Maybe I’ll change my ways, although I have missed the best opportunities this season as the morning light is arriving later and later with each passing day. Fingers crossed conditions are OK for me to get back into the water this weekend:
Sandbagged 