Needless to say I have been having a dip in the ocean over the last few days, and not wanting to head out in the car all of my swims on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and finally Boxing Day have been off my local beach. The morning of Christmas Eve was busy on the beach, the usually sight of tourists getting bogged in the sand swearing blind they had let their tyres down. That said I’ve been guilty of not letting them down resulting in being bogged, but only once. I left them behind as I put my head under the water to see what I could find:
I drifted for well over 45min but the fish were few and far between and there were very few other marine creatures to be found. Despite this, just being in the water seemed reward enough especially on a hot day. There are always great sights to be seen such as this school of White Trevally, the same fish that were hiding in the huge school of Western Trumpeter Fish that I came across when diving with Rongy. And also this beautiful Western Stripped Cardinal Fish, which being a nocturnal fish are often found in nooks and crannies during the day:
On Christmas before all the festivities of the day began, Lisa headed down for a walk on the beach and I took the opportunity to put my head under once more. Being early Christmas Day we were greeted with an almost empty beach, which soon started to fill up. The clear waters were full of promise, but also once more all the marine life seemed to be hiding, and despite duck diving to check under lots of shelfs and caves there was very little to take a snap of and nothing that needed any research when I got home:
The floor was littered with sea stars, sand gobblers and urchins but I feel like I have swamped you with images of these many times before. So the only image from that day, beside the beach, is this Blue Swimmer Crab. Each year there seems to be a creature that I see in greater numbers than normal, and this season has started with these guys. I usually find a few but this year they seem to be popping up everywhere, and as I came out of the water I passed a couple who had started fishing before I arrived. All the guy had caught were two crabs:
Boxing Day came and I felt the need to get out of the house before Lisa and I started to lounge about watching TV and eating too much food. The water was choppy, a stiff wind had come in to cool the place down after five very hot days. It was a welcome change while out of the water but the wind was stirring things up below. With the light penetrating the water I could see the bed quite well, but looking sideways was pointless. To prove the point I happened to pop my head out at the right time to see a pod of some eight dolphins cruise past me only some six meters away, yet underwater they were hidden from view:
I didn’t stay out too long because of the conditions and heading in I spotted a sea star on the sandy bed well away from the reef. I’ve not seen one out in the open like this before, and as I dived down to take a closer look I noticed the upper skin had lots of little jelly like looking protrusions, again something I haven’t noticed before. Reading up on the anatomy of sea stars it seems they are papulae, also known as dermal branchiae or in less technical terms skin gills. They assist with breathing and can be extended out of and withdrawn into the skin. The unanswered questions for me being why with all the sea stars I have observed have I not seen this before and why did this one have them extended:
Sandbagged 