The Blob

Last weekend I squeezed in a quick snorkel before everyone rocked up to our place for the first viewing of Wiggins latest video.  I had two reasons for this, well maybe three.  The conditions were lovely and I knew that the rest of the day would be chewed up so it was my only chance; I had not had much sleep due to being the taxi service for my daughter and her friends year twelve ball and after party and what better way to freshen and wake up to prepare for the hectic day that lay ahead; and thirdly I guess also because we live by the beach and it would be criminal not to go in and appreciate our surroundings:

The water was reasonable and just being out there is reward enough after having had such an amazing snorkelling season.  While I’m always hoping to find something new, I am also very content to see whoever and whatever might want to say hello.  Above I found a Globe Fish that I’m guessing had a fight with something or got an infection and was now in the recovery stage.  The blister over the eye was allowing the healing process to occur.  In researching about how and whether fish eye injuries heal I found out that, unlike humans, fish are able to regenerate injuries to the retina:

The Herring were out in force and I was surrounded by them on several occasions.  When I first went in the beach was empty but as I got out there were a number of people fishing, no doubt they managed to get a feed assuming the fish were biting.  There were also many other small fish about, which were near impossible to photograph in the early morning light.  After a while I decided it was time to check out the ocean floor.  So I took pot luck and picked various spots to dive down to and see what I might find:

I have seen many squirts in the area but nearly all of them have openings which have more of a red colour.  As such the one above with what looked like four yellow petals caught my attention.  If I got too close or moved towards it too quickly the opening clamed shut and it was impossible to even see it.  So it took a few dives to get my approach right and secure the above image.  While I was out there for a while I didn’t take many images, I was however very grateful for the dip in preparing me for the day that lay ahead:

In view that I didn’t take too many images on that dive I have included them in this post with a few from my trip out this afternoon.  After a great climbing session in the morning what better way than to freshen up than jump in the ocean, we certainly live in a great outdoor playground!  It was cloudy but the water was flat enough and the water seemed reasonably clear underneath.  Above is a fish that I have yet to identify.  It has two very distinct canine teeth that protruding from its mouth, which are unfortunately masked by the weed in which it is hiding.  One on my hit list to get a good image of both of the whole body and also a close up of the mouth:

Above are the same little fish that I had photographed in front of the herring the weekend before.  This time they were more clearly visible and I got a really good look at them, as they hung about for ages.  They had a very distinct yellow caudal fin, shape and facial features, a pinkie/orange sheen to the upper body turning to silver on the belly especially towards the head.  Despite all these features and browsing my two field guides from cover to cover I have yet to identify this fish, any help would be most welcome:

I kept duck diving down to check out other the ledges and came across the above sand anemone in a small cave, and just couldn’t resist including the image.  I also saw loads of Gobbleguts and Cardinal fish, not the same Cardinal Fish I saw at Canal Rocks the a couple of weeks back.  I went down several times by failed to get any sharp images, that was despite staying down for longer than my lungs would normally allow.  The fish just didn’t want to stay still!  For this particular ledge the speckled looking yellow sponge a bit deeper in caught my eye, so went back up and took another deep breathe to take a closer look.  It was only when I went close to look at it that I realised there were two eyes watching me from within:

I’m always very happy to find an octopus and this one, unlike just about every other one I have ever seen, didn’t try to suck itself deeper into the crevice.  Normally I get to see the legs pulled in tight with the eyes just visible.  This time however I could see the mantle clearly, which is the large body mass at the back of the head in which most of the organs are found.  The muscular tube can be seen on the side behind the eyes expel water after it has been drawn in through another opening and passed over its gills.  While it has gills, to extract oxygen from the water, when an octopus is resting it can absorb approx. 40% of its oxygen demand though its skin:

After disturbing the octopus way too much I made my way back to shore.  On the way I came across what looked like a tangle of hair.  I kept my distance as I took some images and it turned out to be a jellyfish.  I think this might be of the Hydroza taxonomic class and going further would even suggest it is called a Hydroza Medusa.  I say this due to the long hair like tentacles along with the shorter more defined and colourful tentacles and shallow saucer like body shape, which was just over a centimetre in diameter.  If I’m right I was glad I kept my distance as it is likely the sting would have been worse than that of the Southwest Stingers we often see here:

On the final leg of my journey back in I came across another very small creature, this one would was also about 1 centimetre in length.  It looked in a way like an early stage of the jellyfish above but didn’t have any long tentacles.  That said the shape was however more sausage like and there was a distinct body inside the balloon looking exterior, with only a few short legs or tentacles sticking out the bottom and one tentacle or antenna sticking out the top.  This blob certainly had purpose as it moved about, and now it was my turn to have purpose and head for shore: