Last night we were invited for a drink and catch up at friends round the corner. It was during the evening, and after staying at this social event far longer than I would normally, that a discussion kicked off about going for a snorkel. Esky and I were keen and we talked Dan into coming in the water with us. Dan has snorkelled with Esky before but it was a long time ago and he seemed somewhat nervous about the concept. However, despite the alcohol that some consumed, and for some lack of sleep due to the heat and teenagers memories of the agreement surfaced to our minds the next day:
We had decided on a bit of a walk along our local beach to try and find a couple of good bommies just past a place called Higgins Cut. I had yet to visit this area so was eager to explore some new ground, especially after two successful dives at new spots of Canal Rocks and then Stratham Beach (local known as The Huts). It was a different morning compared to the last few weeks, cloud was in the sky and there was no wind. As a result of the reduced sun the water looked a little dark, but there was no swell or waves to speak off. We left Lisa, Kath and Bonnie on the beach with the four dogs and headed out:
We were in about 4m of water most of the time, varying between 5 and 3m and the bottom was on the whole flat and featureless. Still I kept my hopes high and as we went out the bottom was sandy to start with, where I spotted a small Southern Fiddler Ray. Pointing this out to Dan we then went on and started to spot a few fish here and there on the more rocky floor. Nothing particularly different, but I would duck dive down to check out what might be below, above is a bivalve and inside you can see the filters collecting the particles out of the water:
Above are some Sea Squirts. What caught my attention about this image, when I looked at it at home, was not the bright red and knobbly Sea Squirts, but the small red and white filters to the left and underneath the rock. They look to be Feather Duster Worms. I have tried to take images of these before, but they are very sensitive to unusually water movements and quick to retract into their protective body. To get a good image you need to stay still and also be able to stay down for long enough to get the angle and focus, without any sudden movements:
Duck diving seems easy, Dan had a bash but he struggled to get very deep. This was in part due to being in a full length wetsuits, which may keep you warm but also provide us with more buoyancy. Working against the intention of going down. I’d recently bought one for myself and had it on today, but also two weights on my belt to compensate. I used these weights to help with my three quarter wetsuit, but with the full length one on today I struggled to compete against the extra buoyancy. I might need to invest in another weight. Despite that I managed to get down and under one of the few limestone features I spotted some Gobbleguts:
There was also what I believe to be a Bullseye towards the back on the right and at the back in the centre a Western Stripped Cardinal Fish. I found another one of the latter later on and got some great close up images. It’s a shame I couldn’t stay down longer to check out these nooks and crannies, and see what might be hiding in them. We did come across this great coral, I’ve chucked it on QuestaGame to figure out if I am right in assuming it is a type of stony coral of the genus Favites. I first thought it may have been a Brain Coral , but a close-up inspection of the structure and patterning is making me think not:
You may recall in a recent post (https://sandbagged.blog/2020/12/29/the-freezer/) I found something that I at first thought was a brittle star. Well with the help of QuestaGame I’ve managed to identify it as a Bushy Sea Cucumber. I’ve often included images of Sea Cucumbers or Sand Gobblers, and we saw a number of them today. However, the one I found in that previous dive was different to the ones I have commonly seen. This one buries its much shorter 10cm body in the sand with only tree like tentacles poking out. These collect particles from the water, and one arm at a time swipes across the mouth in the middle to collect the particles:
Dan was starting to get cold so headed in, as Esky and I continued to scour the mostly flat base. It was at times rocky, then sandy and at other times covered in sea grass. Soon after in a sandy patch I spotted what I think is a Slimy Bag, we get them washed on the shore and if broken they have a clear gooey slim in them. Again like the squirt above, the main subject of the image is not what caught my attention as I inspected it in more detail back home. It was the small crab behind it. Probably no more than 2cm across, so not surprising I didn’t see it while in the water. Based on the shape, colour, size and long heavy set pincher arms I’m guessing it to be a Smooth Pebble Crab, which only grow up to 3cm:
Earlier on you may have noticed Dan had a long cable attached to his leg, and when he went in to shore Esky popped it on his leg. This is a shark shield, and lets out an electrical pulse that is supposed to put sharks off from getting too close. One of the reasons Dan was a little nervous, was that last week there were some beached whales and one didn’t survive. This resulted in a shark warning being issued and beach being closed, as a precaution. Needless to say we didn’t get to see any sharks on this dive:
Above Esky had an attempt to catch a Blue Swimmer Crab, but it managed to get away. Chatting to him he said that like me he too has noticed more crabs about than previous years, but on this dive we only spied a couple. Another one we found was munching away on some weed, but when I went down for a closer look I was more taken by the below Shaw Cowfish. It didn’t realise I was there until it poked its head out of the weed and came face to face with me, after a few moments of being startled it swam off at a pace. Esky was the next to feel the cold and headed in:
With my full length wetsuit on I wasn’t feeling cold at all, but decided I should probably wander in at a slow relaxed pace. Heading downwards whenever there was something that caught my eye. As I was chasing a fish, I can’t recall which sort, I spotted these white tubes. Something I have seen before, but only once. I thought at the time they were octopus eggs, but I now think based on the size, number and shape they might be squid eggs. With that find under my belt and after an hour in the water, it was finally time to head back to the others on the beach:
Packing up, we walked the 45min back. Mostly in the shade as the cloud concealed the sun. We even felt a spot of rain and heard a low boom of thunder. Then as we got close to home the clouds started to break up and the dark looking waters began to turn to a beautiful turquoise colour. A pod of dolphins cruised past heading towards where we had come from, and Lisa reckoned they were the ones that had swum within 20m past us as we were snorkelling, not that Dan, Esky or myself had been aware or seen them:
Sandbagged 