On Monday this week I headed out to see what I could find, this time I decided to go down to the Capel River mouth and snorkel in the wide bay. Driving along there are glimpses of the ocean, and it was not looking as good as I had hoped. Our local beach is relatively sheltered but on either side of where the Capel River meets the ocean the dunes are lower and the wind was channelling through this gap resulting in the water being a little on the choppy side. Sure enough from the moment I put my head under the water the visibility wasn’t that great:
Still after having made the effort to get here I decided to keep going to see if it would clear up a little further out. Patches were indeed better, but the usual fish life was somewhat wanting today. I came across a few fish other than the above Horseshoe Leatherjacket, they however kept their distance and hid in the weed when I came too close. The only other find worth mentioning was what I think is a Tailor, a large recreational fish growing to 1.2 meters long. This solitary fish was close to a meter long and cruised past me keeping an even and steady pace, as if to say don’t even bother trying to catch me:
That evening friends came over for a drink and catch-up and I was offered a chance to head out and go for a scuba dive. It is something that I have considered over the last few years, but as yet had not put into action. Brian was keen to hunt crays (i.e. western rock lobsters), which meant a deeper dive and one with a mission. While I committed to heading out with him and Esky I was a little in two minds. Then the next morning I got a message from Rongy to say he was hunting a dive buddy to head out with him:
Rongy works at the Dolphin Discovery Centre and amongst his other duties he looks after the aquariums, some of which are quite sizable. The upkeep of these require marine flora and fauna, and every so often these need to be topped up. As such it was again a dive with a mission. However, the depths that he would be going too were shallower. As such I made my mind up to take offer number two, and finally take the plunge into the ocean with more than just my flippers and snorkel mask:
After sorting the gear and preparing the boat, we were off. A short 15-20min journey and we were at our destination, not that you could tell anything from looking in the water. Above you can just make out Bunbury, as we anchored off a reef that was in water no deeper than 15m. With a borrowed 5mm wetsuit and scuba gear I rolled off the side of the boat for my first dive in 19 years, almost to the day. My last dive was with Lisa on boxing day 2001, over in Queensland on the Great Barrier Reef:
Fair to say I was a little nervous but Rongy knew how long it had been and did the appropriate checks to make sure I was all good to go. The first thing that struck me was the weight of all the gear. All this weight disappears once you are in the water, but today we were here to work and as such we also had a myriad of tools, nets, containers, crates and more. My job was simply follow Rongy and be ready to take any chosen corals to the crates, and make sure pots were ready for any chosen marine life:
In-between swimming from Rongy to the crates and back again I occasionally took my time when I spotted something of interest. Above are some small fish I have only seen once before, in a cave while snorkelling off our local beaches. Yellowhead Hulafish are a small but flighty little fish, and they don’t sit very still so it wasn’t possible to get a better image without spending more time just floating along with them. There’s also a Rough Bullseye photobombed the image, of which there were quite a few about:
The above sea star also stood out so I snapped this image as I swam above it on my way back to Rongy. The shape seems to be similar to the Echinaster genus of sea star, so I am guessing that this is what I found. I have previously found a white version of this sea star in early 2020 but never had it confirmed: https://sandbagged.blog/2020/01/27/the-old-stomping-ground/. Rongy was also keeping an eye out for finds and pointed me towards this ray. It would have been great to again take my time and get a bit closer to confirm which one it is, but the patterning gives me confidence in saying it is a Spotted Stingaree:
The water had reasonable visibility but it was not super clear. Each time Rongy handed me something to take back to the crate I had check my surroundings and guess which way to go. I’d look for the anchor chain and rope, and then the less visible rope attached to the haul crate. I somehow managed to find Rongy again on each return trip, but for a period that became really easy. A huge shoal of large Southern Silver Drummers, that reach 75cm in length, came towards us and swam round us like a tornado for what seemed like ages:
Another fish that caught my eye was this Yellow-striped Leatherjacket, of which there were two that swam round together near where the anchor lay. The male with the orange patch, and the image below of the female with a yellow patterning on the caudal fin (tail). Both were displaying the giveaway yellow strip down the side that tapers towards the eye and slowly moulds into the dark ash grey body. They are very elegant fish with striking features and clean lines:
The reef was similar to that off my local beach, but in deeper water. We hunted under shelfs and in small caves but nothing else was to be found in them. The reef was however littered with sponges, corals and sea squirts. The se squirts in particular caught my eye and was found in colours that I don’t see off my local beach. I’ve had a bash at trying to identify them but it seems an impossible task. So for a brief moment I’m going to stop typing and allow you to enjoy the following three images:
After our first dive we headed up, and I forgot the important lesson of a couple of decades back… the safety swim. Instead of stopping 3-5m below the surface and pondering there for a few minutes before surfacing I instead gently continued on my upwards journey. The reward was a slightly thick head, as the air in my blood stream expanded. While it lasted long enough for me to opt out of another dive it didn’t last too long. So while Rongy was diving below me at the next location I snorkelled above:
In 3-6m of water snorkelling worked well and it also avoided me staying on the boat that was rocking back and forth. I’ve discovered I do not possess the sea legs I once thought I did. While Rongy was below he never saw the sight of thousands upon thousands of Western Striped Trumpeters, that almost made the light disappear. And hiding amongst them a far smaller school of White Trevally. I have to say that while I made a rooky error, it was a great dive and I wasn’t put off heading out again… whenever the next chance (or two) should popup:
Sandbagged 