Chai's Marine Life Blog

Diving in Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (1)

2010-05-18T07:46:00.003+08:00

At last, I have dived in my own country!

I went on a three-day dive trip to Tunku Abdul Rahman Marine Park (TARP), Sabah, last week. The marine park is accessible by a 15-minute speedboat ride from the mainland. I went diving with Downbelow, a dive operator based on one of the islands, Pulau Gaya (Gaya Island).

It just happened that during my visit, it rained every day. So the underwater visibility was not very impressive. According to the dive guides, visibility was the best during the driest months, e.g. January and February. Anyway, this being my first time diving in the tropical seas, I was quite happy to have seen heaps of marine life that I haven't before.

Every morning, the routine was pick-up from the hotel, followed by transfer by speedboat to the island. Then I would spend the morning doing two dives, and would have a tea break after the first dive, and lunch (catered for) after the second dive. After another dive in the afternoon, the dive operator would send me back to the hotel.

This is a photo of Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain (4100 m) in South East Asia, taken from the speedboat. Every day, during the speedboat transfer to and from the island, I saw this.

The jetty on the Gaya Island.

On the first day I set foot on the island, the dive operator gave us a brief introduction to the island and the marine park.

A sign erected between the jetty and the dive centre, informing visitors what they mustn't do in the marine park. It says "...it is an offence to: Bring any weapon, explosive, fishing net, trap or poison into this park...Bring pets into the park...Take away sand or coral". And that penalty is a 1000 Ringgit fine plus a three-month imprisonment for first-time offenders.

Our three dive sites on Day 1 were Sulug Island, Edgel's Patch and Coral Garden. The photos below were taken in the first dive site.

The visibility as I mentioned wasn't too great. So, I didn't take many shots like this one, which shows a huge school of fish in the background.

There were corals everywhere I looked. The seascape was very different from what I was used to, where there was seagrass or seaweed or kelp on the seafloor. I don't remember seeing any seagrass patches in this dive site. It was mainly coral reefs with some sandy or silty patches. This photo shows some staghorn corals amid other hard corals.

Stony coral (Family Faviidae?)

There were many soft corals around the dive site too.

Roy, my dive guide, told me these are bubble corals.

He said that bubble corals are home to orangutan crabs (Achaeus japonicus), the fuzzy red thing in this photo. It was about 3 cm long I think. Basically it's a decorator crab covered in red algae for camouflage. There is an excellent picture of the critter on this website: http://www.starfish.ch/c-invertebrates/corals.html. Click here.

There were many sea fans around the dive site. I tried to take photos of sea fans with a diver in the background, the kinds of photos I often see in dive magazines but wasn't every successful.

There are sponges everywhere too. Large barrel-like sponges like this one were quite common too. This one was 2 to 3 -feet tall.

And wow! Feather stars were very, very common! It was impossible not to notice them. They were perching on sponges, on sea fans, on soft corals, and I even saw one that was swimming freely in the open water.

The blue seastar (Linckia laevigata) was the second-most common sea star around the dive site, after the feather stars. I didn't see this sea star very often where I used to dive in Australia. Many of them were quite big, about 20 cm or even more across. Unlike many sea stars, this species can actually regenerate the whole body even when there is only one arm remaining.

In this dive, we saw a few sea cucumbers that were quite big, sitting on the silty, sandy sea floor.

A white stonefish! The arrow points at the eye. This was the only one I saw. So it had to be rare. This one was almost one foot long.

A zebra moray eel

I saw a few nudibranchs. This one was Phyllidiopsis species (?).

Giant clams were not very common. I remember when I went snorkeling in Coral Bay, Ningaloo Reef, they were everywhere I looked.

Note (19 May 2010):
Correction. I was just told by Bubble Ring that Mount Kinabalu is not the highest peak in South East Asia, only one of the highest ten.

The Underwater Sydney Project

2010-04-15T05:06:00.001+08:00

I just read about the Underwater Sydney Project on Chad's blog (Adventurous Adventures: http://chadshen.blogspot.com/) and thought I should help spread the news too.

Do take a look at their website: http://underwatersydney.com.au/. It has some great marine life images and short, easy-to-read stories about marine life. In other words, even someone who doesn't know much about marine life can understand what it is all about. The project's founding partners are Sydney Aquarium Conservation Fund and Sydney Coastal Councils. The team running the website consists of both underwater and media experts.

According to their website, the project aims to "1) makes people love their own local marine life, 2) helps them get to meet it, and 3) inspires them to help protect it." Agreed. In fact, I believe many nature bloggers are contributing to these too, in our own ways.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement on their website:

"The biggest threat to the world’s marine environment is lack of awareness. People only protect what they know and love… and our oceans are out of sight, out of mind and out of luck. The marine world urgently needs a good publicist!"

Well-said!

Snorkeling in the Yallingup Lagoon (for the last time) - (1)

2010-04-13T08:12:00.000+08:00

Yallingup Lagoon again? Yes, and I wouldn’t mind many more times although this was probably the last time, ever.

If you still remember my last post about Yallingup, I was there in the middle of January (17 Jan 2010). About two weeks afterwards (31 Jan 2010), I was there again with two other keen snorkelers, Truc and Jude. We went camping on a farm in the Margaret River region for two nights so that we could go snorkeling there. So, thanks to them I had the opportunity to visit Yallingup Lagoon again.

I have previously written about Eagle Bay, which is another good snorkeling spot near Dunsborough, and not too far away from Yallingup. However, for a snorkeling site, Yallingup Lagoon is worth writing about more than Eagle Bay is. This isn’t just because the lagoon is easier to snorkel because it’s shallow (less than 1 meter) and calm. It’s also because people tend to think of Yallingup Beach as a top surfing spot and just another snorkeling site. People who find out about snorkeling sites only from “Dive and Snorkel Sites of Western Australia” will probably miss out the lagoon because it’s not included in the two books.

While it’s not possible to dive in the lagoon, I would describe it as a fantastic snorkeling spot, if not the best in that region. I mean, honestly, it is teeming with more marine life per cubic meter of sea water than anywhere else I ever snorkeled (except perhaps around Rottnest Island)!

The Yallingup Reef consists of granite boulders to the south, which is the left side of the lagoon when you stand facing the ocean in the car park in front of the caravan park. To the north and to the outer edge of the reef is a limestone rock platform.

Looking towards the south of the lagoon

Looking towards the north of the lagoon

The lagoon is the southernmost point in Western Australia where there are still tropical fish species thanks to the Leeuwin current. Near the beach, a number of signs have been erected to inform visitors about the status of the lagoon as a reef protected area and the range of marine life that can be found there. One of the signs says that the lagoon acts as a sick bay for the fishes. Interesting!

There were heaps of fishes in the southern end of the lagoon, although many of them appeared to be juveniles rather than adults, possibly because the bigger ones have moved on to deeper water. It was mostly shallow in this part of the lagoon, about 3-4 feet. Even the ledges are not very deep below the surface. In some parts, you may even run aground.

These are the photos I took in the south end of the lagoon.

Boulders in the south end of the lagoon. Also, see how clear the water was!

Lots of zebra fish (Girella zebra) in the lagoon. Although not very colorful, they were still delightful to watch!

Heaps of striped trumpeters (Pelates octolineatus) too.

Old wives (Enoplosus armatus) at the edge of a wireweed (Amphibolis) seagrass patch

Stripeys (Microcanthus strigatus)

Western buffalo breams (Kyphosus cornelii) - a relative of the common buffalo bream (Kyphosus sydneyanus). The western buffalo breams doesn't have a black margin along the edge of its tail and has no moustache, unlike the common buffalo bream. Also, the common buffalo bream feeds on brown algae while the western buffalo bream feeds on mainly red algae.

A male black-throated threefin (Helcogramma decurrens). It was a small fish about 4-5 cm long. The name "threefin" probably comes form the fact that it has three dorsal fins. It is one of the most abundant fish specis on reefs off the southern coasts of Australia. The red blotch under the fish's chin (blue arrow) indicates that he was now in the middle of mating season.

I managed to show Truc and Jude this pretty feather star too. You see, in the past, I have told them frequent enough about my encounters with southern eagle rays off South Cottesloe. But whenever we snorkeled there together, the eagle rays just seemed to have disappeared from there! And I did tell Jude and Truc that there were heaps of fishes under the ledges in the lagoon. But well, they were not as plenty as the last time I found them. Typical wildlife! Anyway, at least when I told them there were sea stars in the lagoon whenever you turn a rock over, I managed to show them it’s true.

My dive story (4) - Rottnest Island double-dive (II)

2010-04-07T08:52:00.007+08:00

Date: 22/1/2010

Second dive: Little Armstrong Bay, Rottnest Island

For this second dive of the day, I was quite happy to find my buoyancy control had improved. I was still not very self-reliant and vigilant though, having forgotten to check my depth and air pressure regularly. A few times, I forgot about my buddy too (blushed). As I wrote in my last post, I had my share of problems in diving too.

For this dive, the maximum depth was 12 meters and the visibility was about 10 meters. Our bottom time was 43 minutes. When we surfaced, I still had 100 bar of air. Unfortunately, the guide decided to wrap it up early. For some reasons, two divers in the group aborted their dives early. One diver couldn’t equalize her ears and had to abort her dive. Later, another diver somehow began to rise to the surface feet first. (Note: when I check my dive log again, I realized that photo of a diver rising to the surface feet first in my last post was actually taken during this second dive, not the first dive).

When each of the divers went for the surface, the guide had to go and make sure he/she was alright. When this happened, myself and the other remaining diver were told to just stay put to wait for the guide to return. I guess probably having to go back and forth this way made the guide use up his air quicker than he would be. So he decided that we finish our dive even though I and the other remaining diver still had plenty of air.

Although there are not as many caves and swimthroughs in this dive, the marine life in this dive site are not very different from that in the first dive. In terms of fish life, I saw lots of western king wrasses (Coris auricularis), schools of blue-lined hulafish (Trachinops brauni), and some blackheaded pullers (Chromis klunzingeri). Other than that, there were the regular stuff on the reef, e.g. lots of Sargassum weed, Ecklonia kelps, hard corals, sponges, some gorgonians and a few nudibranchs (Chromodoris westraliensis).

Brain coral

Gray finger sponge

A highlight of the dive was finding two weedy seadragons (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus) on the sandy floor. Everyone in the group was pretty excited about the find. I was too, but not as excited as I was the first time I saw one when snorkeling off South Cottesloe.

It was my buddy Lammert who spotted the first seadragon.

Later, I spotted another one near a boulder. This one looked a bit weired and had a shorter tail.

Another special moment was the sighting of hundreds and hundreds of Woodward’s pomfrets (Schuettea woodwardi) that were hovering in the shadow of our dive boat. I was there waiting for the guide to return after helping a diver surface. And then when I turned around, hundreds of Woodward’s pomfrets came into sight. I have never seen such a huge number of pomfrets in any of my snorkels or dives so far.

Hello? Anyone blogging about Malaysian marine life?

2010-04-05T17:02:00.005+08:00

My personal experience showed me that keeping a blog about marine life is a useful thing to do. It allows me to practise writing, document my underwater adventures, and share my excitement about marine life with others. And it's a way to put my interest in underwater photography into good use too.

Also, through my blog, I got to know people who are equally enthusiastic about marine life too. That's how I found a few snorkeling buddies anyway. Every now and then, when someone emails to tell me they didn't know there's so much marine life to see in their neighborhood, till they read my blog, I know my blog is doing something right.

After my return to Malaysia, one thing that I have been doing is searching high and low for nature blogs about the local marine life. I checked and didn't see any entry in the Nature Blog Network marine section. I do know, however, in Singapore, there are a group of really dedicated marine life bloggers. I have recently put up a couple of posts on two local underwater/diving forums to search for local marine life bloggers, hopefully there'll be good news soon. I am interested to find any Malaysian bloggers who write about their underwater encounters when they go diving, snorkeling or even just beachcombing. In other words, I am searching for local bloggers who are keen about marine life, whether they can dive, snorkel or swim or not really doesn't matter.

Considering all the fabulous marine life there is in Malaysia, I would be surprised if there are not many underwater naturalists or marine life enthusiasts around. Anyway, keeping a blog about underwater adventures may be an uncommon thing to do I guess. Probably reading an underwater/ marine life blog, which is what you are doing now, is not a common thing to do too.

Anyway, if you are a local marine life blogger or you know one, drop me a line! I am really curious how long the list of local marine life bloggers can get.

My dive story (3) - Rottnest Island double-dive (I)

2010-04-02T08:11:00.001+08:00

Date: 22/1/2010

First dive: Roe Reef, Rottnest Island

This was my first dive at Rottnest Island. Lying in the north east of the island, this dive site has a maximum depth of 15 meters and offers many limestone caves and swimthroughs.

Among all divers on the dive charter, I had the least number of dives under my (weight) belt - only 8 (then)! It was difficult for the dive master to find me a suitable buddy and in the end they told me to just go with the guide. I found out afterward there were also a few others who had requested for a guide. So, there were five of us including the guide. We checked out the reef, ledges, caves, etc. I didn't see many marine fishes that I haven't before, except for a western blue devil, and some unknown small fishes.

Two divers descending to the dive site at the beginning of the dive

A huge sea urchin hiding in a hole in the reef. It must be about one foot across. It had thin spines and looked different from ones I often see when I go snorkeling or beachcombing.

A zoanthid colony on the reef

Possibly a many-pored star (Fromia polypora). It was about 8-10 cm across. I don't remember seeing this species when I went snorkeling, probably because it lives in deeper water. It seemed common on the reef.

A small many-pored star sitting next to a colony of bryozoan Adeona grisea (the dark brown plates with many holes in them)

Everything went well except for this "incident":

When we were swimming over the seaweed-covered floor, I saw the girl in front of me trying to reach back to the rear dump valve of her BC (buoyancy compensator). I assumed she wanted to release air from her BC so I just gave her a hand.

Almost immediately afterward, I noticed that her tank was slipping off. Luckily I managed to put the tank back in place before it came completely loose and tightened the tank strap (the best I could). Then the guide and others saw us and came over to help. The guide got her to kneel down on the floor and tightened the tank strap for her again. But the girl was slowly rising. So, without being asked, the rest of us tried our best to weigh her down, holding on to her forearms and calves. The whole situation was just so funny and it’s a shame I couldn't take a photo of it!

Anyway, I realized then I would need to be negatively buoyant in that situation in order to hold the girl down. Otherwise, I would probably rise to the surface together with her. So, I just tried my best to use my breathing to make myself more negatively buoyant. I also realized how important it was to be calm underwater. Ever since the first time I set up my scuba gear, I always had this question "What will happen if my tank slip off underwater?" Now that I have seen it happen, I knew that although the tank is heavy, it won't just come off right away. You or your buddy will likely notice something isn’t right before it’s too late.

The highlight of this dive was checking out a large cave where there were numerous footballer sweeps and rough bullseyes hovering in the dark. I managed to get a few shots of the fishes hovering inside the cave, with bright back light.

The best part of the dive was checking out this cave with many fishes in it.

Footballer sweeps

Rough bullseyes hovering near the roof of the cave

Finally, this was a curious sight. I took a shot of a diver who was rising to the surface, feet first. Must have been a nervous moment for the diver. I have my problems in my diving too, just that this isn't one of them : )

Eagle Bay, Dunsborough

2010-03-31T08:18:00.010+08:00

This January I went snorkeling at Eagle Bay twice. The spot I visited was probably the one described in "Dive and Snorkel Sites in Western Australia" or not far from it. The area is shallow (2-3 meters), sheltered and had good visibility both times I was there (15 and 30 January). There are also many rocks on the sandy beach that extend into the sea, just as described in the book.

Looking towards the surface across a huge boulder covered with a thick blanket of brown seaweed.

What I didn't expect to find was heaps of stingers in the water, especially over the sandy area! Fortunately I wore my long-sleeved rashie, so my arms were safe although I still got stung a few times in my neck.

This was a good spot for chasing and watching fishes but not for taking photos. The fishes were quite camera-shy. In the mostly sandy area that extends to about 50 meters from shore, there are some scattered boulders. Near the boulders, I found a few schools of banded toadfish and blue-spotted goatfish, as well as a juvenile moonlighter. There were also a school of Australian herring or tommy rough.

Blue-spotted goatfish

A juvenile moonlighter

I also had a good time chasing after a school of leatherjackets around the scattered boulders. There were about 7 of them and each was 20-30 cm long. They were quick swimmers and so it wasn't easy to take their photos. I ended up with a few photos that are not useful for identification of the fish species. But chasing these bluish, greenish leatherjackets between scattered boulders were quite fun.

Leatherjacket

Around the scattered boulders, I also found a few brown-spotted wrasses that were lying sideways, with most of their body hidden under a rock, showing only their head.

Brown-spotted wrasse

On one of the huge boulder, I found a colony of zoanthids too.

Zoanthid colony (Zoanthus praelongus)

The seaweed-covered rocks just off the beach are also worth exploring although the area is quite shallow. I looked at the short video clips I made and could recognize these fishes: western buffalo bream, common buffalo bream, banded sweep, sea sweep, western pomfret, zebra fish, red-lipped morwong, and rough bullseye. In spots where it was only a few feet deep, there were also stripeys and rough bullseyes in small caves.

Stripeys and rough bullseyes

Perhaps the most interesting find was this juvenile western scalyfin. It was hanging out in a hollow formed by a ring of rocks very near the shore. The fish was about 5 cm long. It looked quite pretty, with numerous blue dots on its head and an orange/brownish body.

Juvenile western scalyfin

Snorkeling in Yallingup Lagoon, Western Australia

2010-03-19T06:40:00.005+08:00

My last post was about my dive on the HMAS Swan Wreck during my holiday in Dunsborough with a few friends. The next day (17 January 2010), I went snorkeling in the Yallingup Lagoon. That was my second snorkel in the calm waters of the Yallingup Lagoon. I snorkeled there the first time in 2007 and was immediately impressed with the ease of the snorkel and the variety of marine life in the lagoon. The lagoon is the best snorkeling spot (that I know) for anyone who just begins snorkeling.

The Yallingup Lagoon is truly an amazing spot to snorkel because you snorkel next to some big wave breaks. And regardless of the wind, the lagoon is more or less calm. In other words, even with the big waves in sight, you know you are pretty safe in the lagoon.

The lagoon is quite shallow, about one meter or less in most part of it. Underwater, I found some seagrass patches as well as places with sandy and reefy patches. The sandy area appeared to be good for swimming. So, the Yallingup Beach really caters for the surfers, snorkelers, and swimmers.

Another view of the lagoon. The two persons in the photo were standing at the edge of a shallow reefy area, with a sandy area (light blue) ahead of them. The dark blue/green areas are the seagrass.

In this snorkel, I explored the left end of the lagoon, which is near a carpark. The lagoon was teeming with marine life. As soon as you hit the water, you would start seeing schools of fishes swimming around you. But what really impressed me was that every time I turned over a rock I would see some marine creatures.

This rock had an elephant snail (red arrow; the black creature) (Scutus antipodes) and a feather star (green arrow) (Cenolia trichoptera) sitting on it.

On this rock, there were a number of abalones (yellow arrows), two elephant snails (green arrows) and a sea cucumber (red arrow).

A purple sea urchin sitting next to a feather star. I also saw a few slate-pencil urchins in rock crevices.

Another shot of the pretty feather star.

A brittle star - a wriggly, fast-moving little animal

Some tiny sea squirts under a ledge. Each of these little stalked spheres had two large holes. This resembles other stalked and attached sea squirts which have an inlet and an outlet for water in their body. Each of the small spheres was about 1 cm or less in diameter. Behind these little sea squirts were the feathery arms of a feather star (or maybe more than one star).

Over the reef and the seagrass areas, there were heaps of zebra fish (Girella zebra) swimming around. In this group, there was one or two breams too.

There were also many striped trumpeters (Pelates octolineatus) in the lagoon, although not as common as the zebra fish.

And I saw a few small schools of old wives (Enoplosus armatus). It was quite an incredible experience as I would have to free-dive a few meters to see a school of old wives in South Cottesloe. But here in the Yallingup Lagoon, they were just one or two feet below the surface.

Other fishes I saw over the seagrass and the seaweed-covered reef included western scalyfin, six-banded coralfish (moonlighter), western king wrasse, goatfishes, and trevally. I even saw a southern eagle ray resting on a sandy patch not far from shore. There were also quite a number of fishes that I still haven't worked out their names.

When you snorkel in the Yallingup Lagoon, you must check out what's waiting for you under the ledges of the shallow reef - lots of fishes. In this spot, I saw lots of old wives (at least 30 of them) and some stripeys (Microcanthus strigatus). Who would have thought you would find all these fishes in just three feet of water!

Finally, seeing this zebra fish with a metal hook through it's mouth sure gave me a little shock!

Departed

2010-03-18T17:50:00.007+08:00

Finally, I have left Perth and come home to Malaysia - transplanting myself from the recent scorching summer heat of Perth to the hot and humid weather of Malaysia.

This is my Day Five in Kajang, my hometown which is located about 20 km from Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. Kajang is a landlocked city which I think has more shopping opportunities than natural attractions. Can I live in a landlocked city and at the same time maintain my marine life blog? Not for long I think.

Anyway, between my last post and now, I have done about 15 scuba dives and 20 snorkels around Western Australia and Tasmania. So, at least for the next couple of months, I will be living in Malaysia, but writing about my underwater adventures in Australia!

My dive story (2) - HMAS Swan Wreck dive

2010-02-02T20:54:00.009+08:00

Finally after an enjoyable camping trip to the Margaret River and this and that, I am now sitting down and writing about my experience diving the HMAS Swan Wreck.

I drove to Dunsborough with a few friends on 15 Jan (Friday). Dunsborough is a beachside town about 3 hours drive south of Perth. The main reason for my visit was to dive the HMAS Swan Wreck. The former HMAS Swan was a huge warship (113-meter long!) that was decommissioned and purposefully sunk as an artificial reef and dive site in Geographe Bay, off Dunsborough. Now, the wreck is sitting on a sandy bottom in 31 meters of water.

My double-dive was on Saturday (16 Jan). Surface conditions were choppy that morning. The dive shop (Cape Dive) reckoned that entry and exit at the dive site would be a tricky business. So the dive was delayed by about two hours until the surface conditions improved. Other than that, everything just went beautifully - I suffered no seasickness; my buoyancy control improved; and the divemaster Luca and skipper Tracee were very helpful and friendly. Also, I finally managed to take some photos that are presentable enough to show on my blog.

For both dives, I was in a group of six divers led by Luca (the divemaster). We used descent and ascent lines for easy entry and exit. Both dives were fantastic. On our first dive, as we were descending towards the main deck, an eagle ray swam out of nowhere to check us out. I was too slow with my camera and didn’t capture a shot.

We checked out the exterior and interior of the ship, descending to the depth of 25 meters on our first dive, and 20 meters on our second dive. There were lots of algae, soft corals, ascidians, and sponges growing on the exterior of the wreck. There were also a variety of fishes hanging around the exterior of the ship, e.g. old wives, footballer sweeps, stripeys, moonlighters.

Sponges and corals on the exterior of the wreck

Sea squirt and corals

Footballer sweeps (Neatypus obliquus) hanging around the deck

A moonlighter (Tilodon sexfaciatus) swimming past the side of the wreck

The interior of the ship looked pretty eerie. It was not completely dark but I found it useful to have a torch. It was an amazing experience to shine your torch in the direction of hundreds of bulleyes hovering silently in some dim passageway/room in the wreck. We swam into the bridge and Luca went to sit on the captain’s chair. I found out later that it’s a popular photo spot. We also checked out the bathroom and Luca who led the group sat on one of the three toilet seats while waiting for the rest of us to come in. Both times, it didn't strike me that I should take some photos. If I have the opportunity to dive the same wreck again, I must get another diver to take some photos of myself sitting on the captain’s chair and the toilet seat :)

I only took a few photos inside the wreck and they didn’t turn out well. Most of the time, I was too busy following the divemaster Luca, making sure that I won’t lose my way and wasn’t left behind in any of the confusing passageways and rooms.

At one point, one of the divers in the group apparently lost his way. I remember we all came out from the hull of the ship and Luca realized that one of us was missing. He signaled to us to stay put and stay in a group before he swam back into the ship to look for the missing diver. So we just hovered in mid-water (about 20 meters deep) to wait for him. I remember he wasn’t successful on his first attempt. Neither was his second. But fortunately after a few minutes the missing diver came out from one of the holes in the hull. Happy ending. What a relief.

The only "accident" I had was that one of my fins went loose, came off and started floating away right before my eyes! FORTUNATELY we were all in the bridge and it wasn’t a large room. One of the divers caught my fin and gave it back to me. So, no drama whatsoever. But if that were to happen in open water, and I lost my fin, apparently I would have to abort my dive.

During the dives, a few times some divers started to ascend to the surface too fast or too early (?) and Luca quickly went to pull them down. I thought that was funny!

Overall, I have enjoyed my double-dive at the HMAS Swan wreck and would LOVE to do it again some day in future. And when I do it again, I am sure I would be better prepared to enjoy the dive and take better photos.

The crow nest, in about 6 meters (?) of water, was where we did out safety stop at the end of each dive.

As we moved towards the crow nest at the end of one of the dives, I saw two divers on the crow nest. Thinking that this would make a fantastic shot, I took this photo. It didn't turn out to be as clear as I hoped it would be.

There were a school of batfish hovering near the crow nest. I took a few shots but unfortunately this is the only one that turns out alright.
See those bubbles? There were a few divers beneath the fish. At this stage, when diving, I am still having trouble picking the right moment to take a shot.

The divers in our group waiting at the crow nest during our safety stop.

Instead of sitting in one place during the safety stop, I explored the crow nest a bit and took this photo of an orange sponge.

Luca, the divemaster.
I took this shot when I thought he signaled to me to take his photo, only to realize immediately afterward that he wanted me to stay put : )
At the end of the dive, he guided all others in the group to return to the boat first. Then he came down again to give me a short, surprise lesson on how to fine-tune my buoyancy. Even though I didn't quite pick up the skills as quickly as he expected, I was grateful for the free lesson.

A final note:
I hate to think that I am bordering on advertising for the dive shop but I must say this. We set up our scuba equipment for the first dive at the shop before we headed to the beach. When we were doing it, Luca told us to take our time to get familiar/ comfortable with our gear. I really appreciated that. Not all divemasters do that. After we set up our gear, Luca also took the trouble to check everyone’s gear to make sure we got it right. Also, unlike other dives I have been to, instead of expecting you to just rely on your mutual buddy checks, Luca and Tracee (skipper) also took a final look at our scuba gear before we took our giant strides into the ocean. That’s FANTASTIC customer service!

My dive story (1)

2010-01-27T20:16:00.018+08:00

Warning: No photos in this post.

:) :) :)

Early last November, after much procrastination, I finally put myself through a PADI Open Water course and got certified. After that, I was just too busy with this and that and didn't SCUBA dive for two months.

And then on 14 January (Thursday), I went to my first boat dive. It was a double-dive in the Marmion Marine Park. Both dives took me to 12-15 m. The first dive was at a spot called "The Ledges" and the second dive "The Apartments".

The first dive was not an enjoyable one. Half of the time I had to struggle to stay down because I didn't carry enough weight (I think). Because of this the thought of quitting the dive actually crossed my mind ten minutes after trying. But then I would make an enemy out of my buddy! So I just went along till I hit 50 bars of air in the tank and signaled to my buddy to finish the dive.

Other divers saw crayfish under ledges during the dive. But as I was too busy battling my upward movement I just decided to forget about it. I took my camera with me on my first dive. Unsurprisingly it was impossible to get any good shots. There were also lots of suspended particles in the water.

On my second dive, I carried 24 lbs (about 10.5 kg) on my weight belt. This time I found it easier to stay near the bottom. I decided not to take my camera with me on my second dive as I believed it would be more important to focus on fine-tuning my buoyancy and learn to hover than to play with a camera.

Both dives showed me more or less the same marine life - sponges, sea stars, ascidians, soft corals, a stingaree and octopus under ledges, woodwards pomfrets, crimson cleaner wrasses, scalyfins, western talmas, etc. I have seen them all when I went snorkeling. A special encounter was the scorpion fish. It was sitting quietly blending into the reef and I almost missed it.

I am not sure if I enjoyed the boat ride much. I got seasick before, between, and after the dives. I took seasick medication before we headed out to the sea and after the first dive. But still, I had to struggle not to throw up most of time I was on the dive boat. At the end of the dives, after returning to the marina, I felt so much better but started to feel very drowsy after a while. Fortunately I have arranged for a friend to come and pick me up!

I came back from the dives that afternoon feeling very dehydrated. I think I haven't drunk enough water before the dive. In fact I can still remember now the unpleasant sensation of breathing in dry, compressed air while diving. It sucks.

Anyway, the next morning, while still recuperating from the dives, I was already on the road driving to Dunsborough with a few friends for a short holiday. I have booked for a double-dive at the HMAS Swan Wreck on 16 Jan (Saturday). I can still remember being apprehensive about the wreck dive the whole of Friday, that it may turn out to be just like my dives on Thursday.

But on Saturday, I had a couple of good dives; I am not sure if it's because my experience from Thursday has better prepared me for Saturday. Anyway, I took my camera with me when diving the HMAS Swan wreck and finally returned with some shots that are presentable enough to share with you here!

Albany snorkel - Little Beach Lagoon

2010-01-26T12:00:00.003+08:00

A few friends and I hired a car and drove down to Albany for a short holiday end of last December. Naturally I wouldn't miss the opportunity to don a mask and snorkel and explore the underwater territories of Albany. I snorkeled at a few spots - Shelter Island (near Mutton Bird Island), Whaling Cove, and Mistaken Island, but they were not really that interesting. Anyway, the last place I went for a snorkel in Albany turned out to be a great spot - a secluded lagoon about 200 m north of the Little Beach.

31 Dec 2009

Little Beach, a beach in the Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserves, located about 35 km east of Albany. The water looked a little choppy and it seemed to be mainly sandy bottom in the bay, so I decided not to snorkel there.

The little lagoon that I spotted while we were driving towards the Little Beach car park. The shot was taken looking south towards Little Beach.

Another shot of the calm and secluded lagoon.

It was about 5 pm when we got there. My friends changed their minds and decided not to go in for a swim because it began to get cold. From my last few snorkels, I realized it was hard to duck-dive with my thick wetsuit (5 mm), without using a weight belt. So, despite the chill, I decided to go in without my wetsuit.

The lagoon was shallow, perhaps only 4-5 feet in the deep end. Visibility was fantastic, possibly because of the shallow depth. It is mainly a sandy bottom (with some silt I think), and dotted with rock boulders. For almost an hour, I was the only person in the lagoon. So it was like my personal snorkeling spot!

There are lots of zebra fish (Girella zebra) in the lagoon everywhere I turned. Most of them are about 15 cm in length, not as large as the ones I have seen before. Adults can apparently grow to 50 cm in length. That got me thinking if the lagoon was something like a nursery for the fish.

These zebra fish are really not shy and would just carry on their business around me. Many times when I got too near, they would just swim a short distance away and turn around and started hovering with their snouts facing me, like they were watching me. And after a while, they would just forget about me and carry on their business gain. Lovely!

I saw some stripeys (Microcanthus strigatus) too.

There are a number of juvenile moonlighters (a.k.a. six-banded coralfish)(Tilodon sexfaciatus) in the lagoon. An adult moonlighter apparently loses the large black spot at the rear of the dorsal fin.

This is another fish that wouldn't care about an approaching snorkeler. It just continued to hover about three feet ahead of me and just let me snap away with my camera! The fish is 15-20 cm in length.

Based on the shape of the fish and the pale stripe that runs down the midline of its snout, it's probably a breaksea cod (Epinephelides armatus). A breaksea cod also has a distinctive black botch surround its anus, hence its other name "Black-arse cod". Unfortunately, I didn't get any good shots of its anus.

I almost missed this little fella who's sitting quietly at the bottom. Based my really deficient fish ID knowledge, I thought it was some kind of flathead, but Shadowkiller (of Dive-Oz) suggested that it's probably a goby.

Shrimps! Lots of shrimps under the rocks and in the crevices between the rock!

I still couldn't find the species name of these fellas. Anyway, unlike the shrimps that I have seen before (at low tide off South Cottesloe and snorkeling in the Swan River), these little fellas just don't care about snorkelers! They just wouldn't go away when I brought my camera near them to get some close-up shots! For a while I thought that's acting more like domestic insects than shrimps.

I also found a few sea hare egg masses here and there in the lagoon, but couldn't find any sea hares.

This one looks like a sponge to me. I just took the photo because it reminded me of cotton candy.

Overall, I think the attraction of this little unnamed lagoon next to the more well-known Little Beach is that it's shallow, small but the residents here just don't care about snorkelers!

Happy Australia Day!

*******************
Update 27 Jan 2010:
I just found out from JimSwims (member of Dive-Oz forum) that the shrimps in the photos above are Palaemon serenus. He called them "cleaner shrimps"; other websites call them "red-handed shrimps" (HERE and HERE).

Museum Victoria website says this:
"The red-handed shrimp is glassy clear, with red stripes across the wrists of its long second chelipeds..."

"This shrimp is frequently seen as a pair of red dots and another of black dots moving across the floor of rock pools (Chai: Interesting!) These are the bands on the chelipeds and the eyes..."

"The species is a scavenger cleaning up dead fish and shellfish... "

Snorkel for Sanctuaries

2010-01-09T07:45:00.015+08:00

I found this event that may interest snorkelers and marine life lovers who live near Cottesloe.

"Snorkel for Sanctuaries

Take part in the Summer Sanctuary Series to help Save Our Sea Life!

The first event of the Summer Sanctuary Series, Snorkel for Sanctuaries will be held on Cottesloe Beach. Participants will don their snorkel gear hit the reef and then surface to learn about the benefits of marine sanctuaries and how to help save our Kimberley sea life!

WHAT? Snorkel, Talk & BBQ

WHEN? Sunday, Jan 24th @ 9:30am for Registration, Snorkel brief at 10am, snorkeling til 11am & a talk by Dr. Jill StJohn @11:15am

WHERE? Cottesloe Beach, Beach Access Path S15, (south of the Cottesloe Surf Life Saving Club, 77 Marine Parade)..."

More information here:

The Wilderness Society — Snorkel for Sanctuaries

South Cottesloe - Woodward's reef eel

2010-01-08T20:44:00.008+08:00

4 Jan 2010

Today I explored the reef on the left and right sides of the South Cottesloe groyne with snorkeling buddy Xander. Xander and I were in the water for two hours in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. The surface conditions were pretty good but underwater visibility was not perfect through out.

Anyway it was a great snorkel because I saw a new fish today - a Woodward's reef eel (Gymnothorax woodwardi).

I found it hiding in a crevice, partly concealed, in the shallow reef south of the groyne. It went deeper into the crevice when I moved my camera near it but didn't swim away. (The arrow is pointing at the eel's head.)

The eel is 40-50 cm in length. "Sea fishes of Southern Australia" (Hutchins & Swainston, 1986) says the eel can grow to 76 cm and may bite if molested (!)

Another interesting find is this little fish head that pokes out from a hole in the reef - the head of a False Tasmanian Blenny (Parablennius intermedius)(?)

The blenny just kept sitting in the hole, allowing Xander and I to take as many photos as we wished.

Xander spotted this large globe fish (Diodon nicthemerus) when we were just leisurely swimming over a shallow seagrass area. It is 20-30 cm long. I think Xander managed to capture a video of it too.

It is an amazing fish that has an inflatable body, movable spines and only two teeth! When feeding, it uses its beak-like jaws to crush hard-shelled molluscs and crustaceans.

I also checked the underside of ledges many times today. Apparently feather stars are quite common under the ledges off South Cottesloe. I took some photos of the feathery arms of these amazing crevice dwellers.

These creatures unfurl their arms to collect edible materials in the water when feeding. When resting, they usually just curl their arms up.

When checking under the ledges, I also saw a banded spined brittle star (Clarkcoma pulchra) at the depth of about 3 meters. I have found one before when I was exploring the shallow reef at low tide (see HERE).

This is the first time I saw a southern bailer shell (Melo miltonis) off South Cottesloe I think. The shell is about one foot long. It was sitting at a depth of about 4 meters in a seagrass bed. What's interesting is that the bailer shell is probably engulfing a turban shell (arrow)! Lunch time!

Besides the encounters I wrote about above, I also saw several octopi and several large schools of fishes. So, overall, it has been an enjoyable underwater adventure today!

Cape Peron - John Point (II)

2010-01-05T12:55:00.007+08:00

5 Dec 2009

I went snorkeling at Cape Peron with Paul today. It was a day with a great start because we saw dolphins coming into the bay (Long Reach Beach) while we were putting our wetsuits on. I remember there were three or four of them. Paul was fast to hit the water to swim with the dolphins (at a distance). He told me later that he heard the dolphins' calls underwater! What an experience! Unfortunately, the photos didn't turn out well, so I have none to share here.

In the bay, water visibility was pretty good although there weren't too many fishes to be seen. I was quite pleased that I spotted a southern eagle ray and Paul saw it too.

The most abundant fishes in the bay had to be the banded toadfish. There must have been hundreds or even thousands of them!

A toadfish "bait ball" - at least a meter across!

Two shots of Paul hovering over a huge school of banded toadfish

Later, we swam to the few limestone outcrops off the beach between Cape Peron and the Penguin Island. But there weren't much to be seen too - despite our long swims. It must have been two km's plus! I thought I had enough exercise for the whole summer at the end of the swim.

We then moved on to John Point. Personally I think it's a fantastic snorkeling spot. The shallow reef near the beach is pretty good for finding small, interesting creatures. We saw small fishes that were resting in holes in the rocks and the tubes of (dead?) tube worms, only poking their small heads out.

Probably a False Tasmanian Blenny (Parablennius intermedius)

Not sure what species these two are

And I saw a pair of Southern Blues-spotted Flatheads (Platycephalus speculator) for the first time.

They were just resting on the sand, almost indifferent to my approach. They did change positions a couple of times in response to my attempts to get closer for better shots. They are about two feet long each.

An exciting find in the shallow water (~1 meter) was this orange and black dragonet (Dactylopus kuiteri). I have seen them at John Point before but it's such a beautiful creature that nobody minds seeing it more than once I guess.

The red arrows point at the fish's elaborate and upright dorsal fin.

The dragonet swam away as soon as I approached it and soon disappeared into the seaweed. It's about 30 cm long. But its erected fins made it look larger than that.

***

The day began with the sighting of dolphins (Great!) but ended with Paul's car window being smashed and our stuff stolen from his car. I have no idea how it happened. The car park was not really deserted and quiet that day. Anyway, each of us ended up learning a very expensive lesson that we shouldn't take too much with us when we go snorkeling and that we must never leave anything in the backseat of the car.

South Cottesloe - Seadragon and squids

2010-01-05T06:25:00.003+08:00

20 Dec 2009

The highlight of today's snorkel has to be the sighting of a common seadragon (or weedy seadragon) (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus). It drifted past in front of me when I was following a fish. (It's a matter of luck! ) Naturally I stopped going after the fish (which I now couldn't quite remember what fish) and followed the seadragon instead.

The seadragon is 20-25 cm in length and was drifting over seagrass at the depth of about 3-4 meters. It was quite well-camouflaged over the segrass and I lost track of it couple of times. This is the second time I saw a seadragon off South Cottesloe. I saw my first seadragon near the end of the South Cottesloe groyne at the depth of 3-4 meters and over seagrass too. That was a day of even worse visibility underwater and I lost track of the seadragon very quickly and naturally no photos were taken.

Another interesting encounter is seeing a group of 15-20 little squids that are just several centimeters long when I was heading to shore.

It was quite shallow, perhaps 1- 1.5 meters in depth where I saw them. It was really difficult to get any good shots of them because of their sizes and poor water visibility near shore. I have no idea what species they are. Anyway they look pretty cute.

South Cottesloe - Squid & Port Jackson sharks

2010-01-04T22:28:00.007+08:00

28 Nov 2009

Southern Calamari

I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I saw squids off Cottesloe. I saw one today that is about 20 cm in length. Its wing flaps/side fins run the full length of its body, suggesting that it's a Southern Calamari (Sepioteuthis australis). Most squids have side fins that are located in the rear half of the body.

I have taken more than a hundred photos of this Southern Calamari, which I found near the end of the groyne of South Cottesloe. It was hanging out in a depth of about 2-3 meters when I saw it. I followed it around the seagrass-covered reef for some time. At one point, when I got too near, it actually got a little aggressive and charged at me.

Port Jackson sharks

This is the second time I saw Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni) off South Cottesloe. The last time was on 30 December 2008 (see HERE). Both times it was around the sandy area south of the South Cottesloe groyne, about 100 meters from shore, and at a depth of 4-5 meters.

I saw three today but they were sitting quite far apart to get all three in the same photo.

These blunt-headed, lazy-looking sharks are about 30-40 cm in length. Adult Port Jackson sharks (PJs) can be more 75 cm long.

PJs are more active at night, being nocturnal feeders. They feed on sea urchins, crustaceans, moluscs and fishes. Their genus "Heterodontus" means "different teeth". Unlike most sharks which have pointy, cutting teeth, PJs have front teeth that are small and pointed and back teeth that are broad and flat. These teeth allow PJs to crush and grind the shells of sea urchins and moluscs.

John Point - Big, orange nudibranchs!

2009-12-28T14:31:00.005+08:00

27 Dec 09

"...They are so gorgeous it's a crime!"

Today I snorkeled at John Point, Cape Peron, for the second time this month. This time I visited John Point with Jude and Truc. It was an excellent snorkel with good visibility underwater and fantastic finds - like these big, orange nudibranchs that Jude spotted. (I must admit Jude seems to be better at spotting interesting creatures than I do!)

We saw two of these pretty nudibranchs - Ceratosoma brevicaudatum. They are not little like the nudibranchs that I have seen before (HERE, HERE and HERE). These guys must be 10 - 15 cm long! They are so gorgeous it's a crime!

Another interesting find is this prickly leatherjacket which I have come across only a few times so far. An unusual-looking guy with tentacles all over its body. Check out other photos of the prickly leatherjacket that I took off Cottesloe HERE.

Honestly, I have never been disappointed whenever I visited John Point. There are just so much to be seen even in shallow water. like the big, orange nudis. And the water seems to be calm all the time. By contrast, the Cape Peron Snorkeling Trail doesn't seem that interesting in my opinion. John Point is definitely highly recommended if you want to see interesting marine creatures and don't bother to go too deep.

So, is anyone interested to start a blog documenting their underwater encounters at John Point?

Sydney snorkel - Camp Cove

2009-12-26T21:50:00.001+08:00

20 October 2009
I went snorkeling at Camp Cove on the last day of my stay in Sydney. It's a fantastic snorkeling spot, especially off the right end of the beach.

Cuttlefish seem to be a common sight here. I must have come across ten or more of them, in just an hour, mostly in shallow water of 2-3 meters. Watching a cuttlefish swim and change its color was fun! And these guys were not too shy. They didn't dash off immediately when I approached them.

Besides cuttlefish, there were lots of other interesting invertebrates at Camp Cove, e.g. jellyfish, sea anemones, fan worms, zoanthids and sea stars.

And an exciting find was this little nudibranch (Ceratosoma amoena) which I found on a huge rock off the left end of the beach. It was probably grazing on the algae-covered rock.

Of course I saw a good variety of fishes at Camp Cove, including a shy blue groper that quickly swam off when I approached it. But an amazing encounter was seeing a school of flutemouths resting at 3-4 meters. I first saw six flutemouths off the right end of the beach, and then another six when I swam out from the left end of the beach.

******************************************************************************

Final note:
What a relief! I could finally finish up my Sydney snorkel series. The last two months have been incredibly busy for me and I realized how painfully slow I have been in updating this little blog. Hopefully things will improve after New Year.

Sydney snorkel - Little Bay

2009-11-28T19:35:00.021+08:00

19 October 2009

After the not-so-satisfying snorkeling experience at Bare Island in the morning, I went snorkeling at Little Bay in the afternoon and had a fantastic time!

Little Bay is like an underwater playground for snorkelers I think. It is not a big bay but I certainly saw more interesting creatures in this protected bay. The visibility wasn't uniformly good throughout the bay. I am not sure if it's due to the construction work going on near the beach. Some parts of the bay had great visibility, but not in others. Overall, it's protected and calm.

1. After I hit the water, I first noticed many resident Black Urchins on the reef.

An underwater apartment block occupied by sea urchins

A dense neighborhood

Black Urchin, or Spiny Sea Urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii)

A close-up photo of this species which I took at the Shelly Beach headland is HERE. I sent the photo to the Australian Museum for identification and received this response from them:

"Our naturalist Martyn Robinson has identified your photo as a Spiny Sea Urchin also known as a Black Urchin, Centrostephanus rodgersii a very common species found in the temperate waters of south eastern Australia. These urchins are extremely active at night and reefs can turn into a black swarming mass at night when as they move around looking for food."

This species is found off New South Wales to Tasmania, but not in Western Australia.

2. I also saw some Eastern Slate-pencil Urchins.

Eastern Slate-pencil Urchin (Phyllacanthus parvispinus)

The slate-pencil urchin uses its blunt primary spines (the big spines on the animal) to wedge itself securely into crevices during the day. It feeds at night by scraping encrusting plants and animals from the reef surface for food.

At Little Bay, however, I saw quite a number of these sea urchins that were just sitting on rock surfaces instead of sitting in crevices. No idea what to make of it. I can't imagine why anyone would remove those sea urchins from their resting spots and place them on rocks. And if that did happen, it must have been recent or the animals would have made their way back to rock crevices for shelter. Perhaps they were dead and hence no longer mobile? Or they also move around during the day?

This species lives off the east coast of Australia (Queensland to Tasmania) but not in Western Australia.

3. I found this Purple-spined Sea Urchin attached to the underside of a huge algae-covered rock.

Purple-spined Sea Urchin (Holopneustes purpurascens)

This sea urchin species is confined to the sheltered and moderately exposed reefs between Richmond River and Ulladulla of New South Wales. So it is not a Western Australia resident. It has a brown or pale pink test (shell), pink spines, and yellow suckers at the tips of its colorless tube feet.

This is a short-spined sea urchin. Its primary spines are up to 4 mm in length, which is really short when compared to the primary spines of the eastern slate-pencil urchin which can be up to 70 mm in length.

4. And I found baked beans underwater!

Swimming Anemone (Phlyctenanthus tuberculosa)

The numerous vesicles covering the column (body) of the anemone make it look like a bag of baked beans. In the second photo, tips of some of the retracted tentacles are visible. The animal attaches itself to the surface of kelps or seagrass during the day. Come nightfall, the animal becomes mobile and feeds by catching drifting food particles with its tentacles.

The first Swimming Anemone is quite large, at least 10 cm in length. The second one, which looks more like baked beans because of its orange vesicles, is smaller, probably about 6 cm long. More photos of the Swimming Anemone that I took in Sydney HERE and HERE.

Southern anemone (Phlyctenanthus australis)

I found this sea anemone on a boulder just a few feet below the surface. It immediately caught my eye when I swam past. It is about 8-10 cm in diameter.

This species is similar to the Swimming Anemone in that they both have numerous bubble-like vesicles on their bodies (columns). The Southern Anemone has grayish blue vesicles and up to 100 red tentacles. Also, unlike the Swimming Anemone, this species remains permanently attached to the reef surface and hence not as mobile.

This species occurs only off the east coast of Australia, whereas the Swimming Anemone is found off the west coast too. More info HERE.

5. Pretty bubble shells

Rose petal bubble shell (Hydatina physis)

I found two of these lovely bubble shells, partially buried in sand, under a huge rock. They are found in Western Australia too but I have never seen them before. They are just a few cm in length, with large, reddish parapodia flaps. There are some very pretty photos of the animal HERE.

6. There is a good variety of fishes living in Little Bay. These are the ones I could photograph:

Stripey (Microcanthus strigatus)

Pygmy leatherjacket (Brachaluteres jacksonianus)

Blackspot goatfish (Parupeneus signatus) (LEFT)
Blue-spotted goatfish (Upeneichthys vlamingii) (RIGHT)

No idea what fish this could be.

7. I also saw a moon jelly (Aurelia aurita).

This moon jelly is about 8-10 cm in diameter.

8. When I finally decided to get out of water, I saw a cuttlefish swimming in my direction. It let me follow it for a short while and then it moved on and hid itself beneath a huge rock.

9. Trash underwater - where did they come from?

A large bottle, probably 3 liter or more in volume

A huge screw driver - it's 2 feet long I think

A golf ball - must have come from the nearby golf course

There were quite a lot of uprooted (detached) kelps

And quite a number of detached sea tulips too. I wonder how it happened.

Sydney snorkeling - Bare Island and Congwong Beach

2009-11-16T12:08:00.003+08:00

19 October 2009

I visited Bare Island and Congwong Beach today. The water off Congwong Beach was choppy and visibility wasn't very good either. In the end I decided to just explore the area west of the Bare Island bridge. Again, visibility wasn't good.

Congwong Beach

Congwong Beach, looking towards Bare Island

The bridge connecting Bare Island to the mainland

I didn't see many fishes. Neither did I take many nice photos. So the snorkel wasn't that productive. But I suppose it might have been different if I had scuba-dived.

Also, I almost swam into a drifting Portuguese Man o' War! It was just two feet or so in front of me when I looked up! Thankfully I managed to avoid getting stung! The only highlight was seeing three little nudibranchs and seeing a very pretty sea anemone with bright orange tentacles.

The three nudis (Ceratosoma amoenum) I saw

A very pretty sea anemone sitting in the crack of algae-covered rocks

Sydney beachcombing - Shelly Beach headland

2009-11-09T20:32:00.000+08:00

17 October 2009

The Shelly Beach headland is such a fantastic place for beachcombing at low tide. I explored the area for a few hours and saw many interesting marine creatures.

The highlight had to be the sighting of a green moray (Gymnothorax prasinus). It was really a surprise as I would never expect to find it in just inches of water. But there it was, swiftly making its way over algae- and seaweed-covered rocks and finally disappeared beneath a large rock. The fish is almost a meter long.

I found two small sea hares under boulders: Aplysia parvula (left) and Dolabrifera brazieri (right). They are both a few centimeters in length. Aplysia parvula is also found in Western Australia while Dolabrifera brazieri is found only in eastern Australia. Dolabrifera brazieri is a flattened sea hare with small parapodia (wing-like flaps) that are difficult to see unless you look carefully. (Thanks to the staff of Australia museum for identifying Dolabrifera brazieri for me.)

And of course there were sea anemones, which I often saw on the rocky shores of Sydney.

I also found a swimming anemone (Phlyctenactis tuberculosa) attached to a seaweed. In this shot, the tentacles surrounding the mouth of the anemone were retracted but still visible.

This time I managed to get a nice photo of the large sea urchins that I saw many times underwater. This sea urchin, whose name I don't know, appears to be a common species off Sydney beaches. I saw many that must be 15 cm or so in diameter. What really caught my eye was the fluorescent colors at the base of some of the spines. I don't remember seeing this type of sea urchins when I snorkeled around Perth.

I also found a brown flatworm (Notoplana australis) under a rock. It was 3-4 cm in length. It is found in eastern but not western Australia. I have seen a flatworm on the rocky reef of Cottesloe at low tide, but it was a different species apparently (see here). That was the first time I saw a flatworm and I thought it was a nudibranch.

Sydney snorkel - Shelly Beach/Fairy Bower Reef (2)

2009-10-27T06:28:00.004+08:00

17th October

I visited Gordon Bay and Clovelly Bay this morning but the water was choppy and snorkeling was out of the question. After a quick dip in the swimming pool at Clovelly Bay, I decided to go back to Shelly Beach again - my second visit to Cabbage Tree Bay.

Since it was not long past midday when I arrived, the underwater light conditions were still quite reasonable. This time I explored further the rocky terrain near the walkway. I swam further in the direction of Manly Beach than I did in my last snorkel here.

Many parts of the rocky terrain are covered in sargassum seaweeds and kelps. Whenever I go snorkeling, I like exploring areas covered in seaweeds. These are places where you are more likely to see fishes than on a bare sandy floor (my experience). The seaweeds are food and shelter to many marine creatures.

Anyway, I have seen many fishes without having to go too deep and managed to photograph some of them. The Fairy Bower reef is surely a good spot to snorkel!

Australian mados (Atypichthys strigatus) - a common schooling species on the coastal reefs in southern New South Wales, but not found in Western Australia.

Female crimson-banded wrasse (Notolabrus gymnogenis)

Male crimson-banded wrasse (Notolabrus gymnogenis)

The crimson-banded wrasse is born as a female and later changes sex into a male. And with the change of sex, the fish becomes drastically different in appearance/coloration. Amazing! The fish will stay a female for the first 4-5 years of its life. So, when you see a male fish, you know it's at least 4 years old (see here). The crimson-banded wrasse is not found in Western Australia.

Male Maori wrasse (Ophthalmolepis lineolatus)

A mature male fish has a dark stripe along the sides and blue scribbles on the head. Females lack the dark stripe along the side. The fish gets its common name from the blue scribbles on the head of an adult male, said to resemble the facial tattoos of the Maori people. This fish is common on the coastal reefs of south-eastern and south-western Australia. Like the crimson-banded wrasse, the Maori wrasse is born a female and undergoes sex change later in life.

Male Rainbow fish (Rainbow cale) (Odax acroptilus) - The fish has teeth that fuse together like a parrot's beak. The fish lives on the southern coasts of Australia, including southwest of Western Australia.

Yellow-finned leatherjacket (Meuschenia trachylepis) - The fish is common on sheltered reefs in coastal bays and estuaries of New South Wales but not found in Western Australia.

Rough leatherjacket (Scobinichthys granulatus) - The fish is often found in protected reef and weedy areas of southern Australia.

Eastern hulafish (Trachinops taeniatus) - A common schooling fish on the coastal and estuarine reefs of New South Wales; not found in the waters of Western Australia.

Juveniles of blackspot goatfish (Parupeneus signatus) - This species is found both on the east and west coast of Australia.

A squid! As I made my way to shore, I saw a group of about 10-12 squids led by a much larger member (photo). They kept avoiding me and so I couldn't get near and get some good shots.

After my two snorkels off Shelly Beach, I was very impressed with the Fairy Bower reef and will recommend it to anyone. I have seen interesting marine life there even in shallow water, including a green moray eel, some leatherjackets, two cuttlefish, a stingray, and a school of squids.

Sydney snorkel - Shelly Beach/Fairy Bower Reef (1)

2009-10-26T06:34:00.008+08:00

16th October

After I returned from birdwatching in the Royal National Park with Denis and Mark, I went to Manly again in the afternoon. This time, I went snorkeling off Shelly Beach, south of Manly Beach. The beach is part of the Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve. An interesting diving /snorkeling spot within the aquatic reserve is the Fairy Bower Reef.

Shelly Beach (arrow), protected from ocean swells by a headland

I entered the water on the left side of the beach and spent most of my time exploring the rocks that lie alongside the walkway. I was only in the water for about an hour. It was a happy snorkel because I saw a few marine animals that I haven't before. Indeed it won't be fun if I had to fly all the way to Sydney just to see things that I can easily see in Perth.

The highlight of the snorkel has to be seeing a green moray (Gymnothorax prasinus). I found it resting under a rock in shallow water (~1.5 meters) near shore. The fish was about 1 meter long. The species is common on Australia's east and west coasts but I haven't seen it before snorkeling around Perth. The green moray noticed me almost immediately but was cooperative enough to let me take many shots of it. I found out later that while the green moray apparently enjoys interaction with divers (snorkelers too?), the fish may bite! Thankfully I didn't get too near it! It certainly looks agile enough to snatch my camera and bite my fingers off!

I also came across two cuttlefish (Sepia species), each about 20 cm in length. I was quite excited to come within such a short distance of them. I could touch them if I wanted. (Of course it is not a wise thing to do!) I like watching the way a cuttlefish swim, which always reminds me of a mini-spacecraft. The first one I saw, which was resting in a crevice, was only about a meter of so from the surface. It changed positions a few times when I was photographing it. The second one which was resting on a flat rock, was about 2 meters below. But it just won't budge even when I dived down towards it! This cuttlefish is a truly laid-back Aussie.

By the way I have only seen cuttlefish a few times and in at least 3 meters' depth on the Cottesloe Reef. And all those times, they quickly disappeared into the seagrass and didn't give me a chance to take some good shots.

I also saw a stingaree - no idea about the species, though. The fish is about 2 feet long.

Besides the green moray, the Smooth Toadfish (Tetractenos glaber) was another fish that I saw for the first time. This species is not found on the west coast of Australia. Off Shelly Beach, I also saw some banded toadfish (Torquigener pleurogramma), which I often see around Perth.

The encounter with a green moray really got me excited about Cabbage Tree Bay. It is really amazing that I didn't have to go deep to see some interesting marine creatures there. So I went back again later for snorkeling and beachcombing. If I lived in Sydney, I would probably start a blog about the marine life of Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve!

Sydney snorkel/beachcombing - Delwood Beach

2009-10-24T12:04:00.020+08:00

14 October 2009

As mentioned in my previous post, it began to rain not long after I started snorkeling off Fairlight Beach. So, I decided to move on to the next beach - Delwood Beach, which is just a few minutes' walk towards the Manly Wharf.

Delwood Beach looking towards the Manly Wharf (a ferry was approaching the wharf). My exploration of the shore of Delwood Beach was my first experience with Sydney rocky shores.

It looked like low tide when I arrived. The first thing that struck me was the abundant seashore creatures that make the place their home. There are animals and plants inhabiting the surfaces as well as cracks and underside of the rocks. Many parts of the rocky shores are covered in Sydney rock oysters (Saccostrea glomerata).

Some rock surfaces are covered in "Sydney corals" - limy/calcareous tubes that house the galeolaria worms (Galeolaria caespitosa).

When I looked carefully, I saw many interesting creatures, even though I didn't and still don't know what they are. For example, these red ribbon-like creatures that live in a crack in the rocks. I suspect they could be a colony of bryozoans - maybe some Steginoporella species or related.

And I saw lots of waratah anemone (Actinia tenebrosa) which inhabit the cracks and holes in the rocks. I have seen many of them around Perth beaches too.

Possibly a sponge - I took a snap of them because they look quite pretty and cute.

Neptune's necklace (Hormosira banksii) - An unusual brown algae that forms chains of yellowish/greenish beads. I found many of them inhabiting cracks and holes in the rocks. The dark beads (left) are the ones killed or damaged by prolonged exposure to heat/dessication. The small pores on the surface of each bead have reproductive cells within them.

This is the first time I saw Neptune's necklace. This brown algae is not found around Perth but only in the southern coast of Western Australia (Albany).

After checking out the shore for an hour or so, I found the skies brighten up and so I hit the water again! I didn't expect to see anything too different from those off Fairlight Beach considering the proximity of the two beaches. Still, I had some surprises!

An interesting creature that I saw for the first time in my career as a snorkeler/beachcomber - a swimming anemone (Phlyctenactis tuberculosa). The anemone attaches itself to kelps during the day and looks like a bag of baked beans. Come nightfall, the animal becomes agile and extends its tentacles to catch food particles that drift by. The animal can move around by drifting in current and crawling or rolling around on the seafloor!

This is the kind of marine creatures that you will always remember after seeing them the first time, owing to their brilliant colors and odd appearance. The animal lives on the southwestern coast of of Western Australia - no wonder I have never seen them off Perth beaches even though they live in shallow water.

Fishlife off Delwood Beach didn't seem to be as impressive as that off Fairlight Beach. Still, after a few tries, I managed to get some presentable photos of the pygmy leatherjacket (Brachaluteres jacksonianus). The species apparently lives in Perth waters. But as I mentioned in my previous post, getting photos of leatherjackets is always a task for me when snorkeling at Cottesloe. So I was quite happy I could watch the pygmy leatherjacket, a small fish about 7 cm or so in length, swimming near me. It is one of the cutest fishes I have come across so far!

Rock cale (Crinodus lophodon) (a.k.a. cockatoo fish) resting on a rock.

This fish is abundant off Fairlight and Delwood. They seem to like sitting on rocks. I tried photgraphing a few that were sitting on bare rocks but unfortunately they didn't turn out well. They would have made some great shots!

The fish is not a Western Australian and is confined to the southeastern coast of Australia.

Not a fish, but a ctenophore, or comb jelly.

There are plenty of them in the water. When the animal is in the right position in relation to the sunlight, you will see fluorescent, rainbow colors passing down the rows of beating hairs (whitish bands) on its body.

White-striped anemone (Anthothoe albocincta) - another non-Western Australian. I found them under a rock while running after a few passing fishes.

After half an hour or so underwater, I gave in to the cold and decided to call it a day. On my way back to shore, I found this octopus (Octopus tetricus) resting in a crack between rocks in shallow water (~1 m).

This last picture shows a large colony of Neptune's necklace that live near the shore.

Sydney snorkel - Fairlight Beach

2009-10-23T21:26:00.013+08:00

14th October, morning

After 4-5 hours of overnight flight from Perth, I arrived in Sydney in the morning. This vacation in Sydney was a gift I promised myself for all the hard work I did over the last 1.5 years. When planning for my holidays I read about the many harbor and ocean beaches around Sydney. Naturally snorkeling and beachcombing would be two important tasks that I should undertake in Sydney. And I had a week to do that.

14th October, afternoon
Fairlight Beach

The first beach I visited was the Fairlight Beach. It was not very difficult to get there: I just have to take two trains and a ferry and a 15-minute walk. The guides that I have studied in preparation for the trip to Sydney say that the beach is good for snorkeling because even in shallow water, there are many fishes. (The only problem that day was that the weather was sort of cloudy and waiting to rain!)

Soon after I hit the water, I noticed there are lots and lots of sea urchins and sea tulips around. The sea urchins and sea tulips are both much larger than the ones I often see in shallow water off Perth beaches. That was exciting for me, a sign that I would be seeing marine creatures in Sydney which I wouldn't usually see off Perth beaches.

FYI, all photos below were taken in shallow water (2 meters or less).

Sea tulips

These sea tulips (Pyura species) are 2-3 times larger that similar ones I have seen at Cottesloe. The stalks of these sea tulips are a foot long or so.

Fishes

Yes, even in shallow water, I saw many schools of fishes. However, getting good shots of them was tricky as the underwater visibility wasn't good. In addition, many of them just swam too fast! The water wasn't too choppy anyway.

Ludericks (Girella tricuspidata)
The fish has 11-12 thin bars on the side of its body.
It is a very common coastal species in New South Wales waters, but apparently absent from the west coast.

Rough leatherjacket (Scobinichthys granulatus)

Rough leatherjackets are also found in WA. When I snorkeled at Cottesloe (Perth), I usually had zero luck photographing leatherjackets. They are just too shy, too fast, or hide up most of the time. So I always thought I would have to SCUBA dive in deep water to get some good shots of leatherjackets. Fairlight Beach is apparently a good place to see leatherjackets. I could see a few different species of leatherjackets swimming around/past me.

Yellowfin bream (Acanthopagrus australis)
Again, a common species in New South Wales waters but apparently absent on the west coast.

Stripeys (Microcanthus strigatus)
This species can be found in Perth waters. They are nice to watch when they swim around in a school of 10 or more - they just look like some underwater butterflies when they move around!

Crimson-banded wrasse (Notolabrus gymnogenis)(female)
I initially thought that this is a brown-spotted wrasse. Later, I was convinced that it should be a female crimson-banded wrasse. This is another common species on kelp-covered reefs in the Sydney region, but not found in Perth waters.

Red morwong (Cheilodactylus fuscus)

The red morwong is the most common morwong on New South Wales reefs. The fish is confined to the east coast of Australia. On the west coast, the most commonly sighted morwong is the red-lipped morwong (Cheilodactylus rubrolabiatus). The red-lipped morwong is indeed the first fish I learnt to recognize and the first fish I got bored photographing. They are just everywhere I go.

Easter blue groper (Achoerodus viridis)

Another fish that is not a Western Australian.
I have read about the inquisitive and friendly nature of the blue groper before. Unfortunately, the few blue gropers that I met off Fairlight Beach just decided to not pay any attention to me!

I was in the water for barely half an hour before it started raining! I didn't mind the rain but without adequate sunlight, underwater visibility just got worse. So I made my way to the shore. The last photo I took was this sea hare (Aplysia dactylomela) that looked like it just fell off a rock and landed head-first to the ground!

Swan River dolphins

2009-09-10T23:04:00.002+08:00

I was sitting on the bus heading back to the university when I saw huge flocks of black birds over the Swan River. I got off the bus hoping to take some photos of the black birds. And I was pleasantly surprised to find that actually those black birds, mainly little black cormorants, were hunting together with a group of four or five dolphins in the river!

I wonder if they are members of the 25 or so "resident" bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) that make the Swan River their home. Apparently, dolphin experts can easily tell one dolphin from another simply based on the "distinctive shape" of their dorsal fins or the markings on the dorsal fins (see River dolphins in research spotlight and Bid to trace Swan River dolphin's heritage).

This one is interesting because it has a white mark on its head. I wonder if it's a scar and how the dolphin got it.

The little black cormorants (Phalacrocorax sulcirostris) were busy flying back and forth following the hunting dolphins, joined by a pelican. I saw the pelican fought with a cormorant for fish, with their beaks of course : ) but I was too slow with my camera to capture it.

Most of the black birds were little black cormorants (left), but I also spotted a few pied cormorants (Phalacrocorax varius) (right).

I also saw a male Australasian darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae), which had probably taken part in the hunt for fish.

Watching the dolphins and the huge number of little black cormorants hunting was fun - except for the rain. It was a wet and windy day; but fearing that I might not get a second opportunity to see these animals feeding, I stood there in the drizzle and cold wind watching them for almost an hour. I certainly impressed myself.

South Cottesloe Beach - Chitons - Ischnochiton torri

2009-08-30T21:41:00.007+08:00

I dug into my image folders again and found that had actually taken some proper shots of Ischnochiton torri. If you remember from my last post, it's the one with eight brown plates with white streaks on each plate, and the plates are surrounded by a distinctive orange girdle.

The last two shots show another chiton curling up. Never having seen a chiton curling up before, I initially thought it was some kind of shrimp : ) Chitons can curl up to protect the muscular foot.

They scrape off algae and small animals off rocky surfaces using their wonder toothed tongue. Chitons have teeth coated by magnetite, making their teeth comparable in hardness to a kitchen kife!

David Macey, a scientist from Murdoch University said this about chiton's teeth in an interview with ABC Television: "Their hardness on a scale of 0-10 is 6.5. .. And a kitchen knife would be around about 6.3 , 6.4 depending on how good your kitchen knife was. So they are really are very hard, they could eat steel if they wanted to." Aren't you impressed!

South Cottesloe Beach - Chitons

2009-08-29T18:00:00.009+08:00

I have taken these photos of chitons some time this January- actually in two of them, I wanted to take the photos of sea stars. I found them under rocks during low tide. These chitons surely look more interesting than the dark, grey ones that I usually find clinging to rocks on the beach.

Later, I was fortunate enough to get Leon Altoff's and his colleagues' help to ID these chitons. I have wanted to put these photos up for months but just kept forgetting to do it.

Leon has a fantastic website (http://www.bluering.org.au) with heaps of photos of marine species, with careful documentation of their family and specific names, distribution, and location where the photos were taken.

Rhyssoplax torrianus (left)

Ischnochiton cariosus

Ischnochiton virgatus next to a sea star

These chitons are so lovely. They are definitely the oens that I want to take some close-up shots of the next time I see them.

Ischnochiton torri (top) and Cryptoplax striata

Ischnochiton torri has a distinctive orange girdle surrounding brown plates with white streaks in the middle. I must get a better shot of it when I can access the rocky shore at South Cottesloe this coming summer.

Cryptoplax striata

According to Leon, this and the one in the last photo are both Cryptoplax striata. Cryptoplax species has very small plates, unlike many other chitons.

Another goose barnacle species - Smilium peronii

2009-08-22T10:59:00.009+08:00

A pretty goose barnacle species that I found washed up the South Cottesloe shore last weekend - Smilium peronii.

I was lucky to have contacted Diana Jones, who works for the Western Australian Museum. She immediately identified the barnacle species and provided me with additional information about the animal.

Below is what I could make out from her reply:

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia (4-31 m); South Australia, East Bass Strait, Victory (15-46 m); New South Wales (sublittoral-9 m); Queensland (4-48 m).

General Distribution:
Indo-Malaya-Australia, Kai Islands, Amboina Bay, Jedan Island.

Habitat:
Attached to organic substrata, e.g. seagrass (Cymodocea sp.), corallines, ascidians (e.g. Pyura pachydermatina Herdman var. gibbosa Kott)(Chai's note: Pyura pachydermatina is a sea tulip); wooden stakes.

Remarks:

First records from Australia are by Darwin (1851), who recorded specimens from Bass Strait, and the Swan River, Western Australia, which had been collected by Astrolabe. (Chai's note: I have yet to find out what/who is Astrolabe.)
The species occurs off the west coast of Western Australia in shallow water and is commonly found stranded on the shore during the winter months after storm activity.

This last photo, taken from an earlier post on this blog, shows a bunch of the goose barnacles (blue arrows) attached to the stalk of a sea tulip (pink arrows).

UPDATE (23 August 09): Fellow nature blogger Denis has provided me with some information about "the ~~The~~ Astrolabe". See the COMMENTS section below.

Beachcombing finds II: Blue bottle, violet sea snail, by-the-wind sailor & blue button

2009-08-17T07:05:00.001+08:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I found heaps of blue bottles (Physalia utriculus (?)) that were washed ashore. I saw the same thing at South Cottesloe as well as the South Beach, Fremantle.

Hundreds and hundreds of blue bottles were washed ashore, marking the high tide line.

They are reasons why you don't want to walk on the beach bare-footed. They have stinging cells on their tentacles (red arrows).

I got stung anyway, not because I was bare-footed but somehow one of them got caught in my sandal when the tide came in. It was painful but bearable. And thankfully, there's no swelling or anything like that. By the way, its tentacle seemed quite sticky and it took a bit of effort to get it off my sandal.

If you look carefully amid the blue bottles, you might find the by-the-wind sailor (Vellela vellela) (blue arrow) and violet sea snail (Janthina janthina) (red arrow). The violet sea snail, which I thought would be rather harmless, is actually a predator of blue bottles and by-the-wind sailors (see here).

This blue bottle has a tentacle 1-1.5 m in length. It must be a nasty experience to come into contact with one while swimming. The red arrow indicates the float. The air in the float may contain rather high levels of carbon monoxide, which the blue bottle produces! Amazing. Steve Reynolds has written two interesting articles about blue bottles in the Marine Life Society of South Australia Newsletter (October 2008; March 2009).

The Mote Marine Laboratory website also has an article about how they keep blue bottles in a tank so that their floats won't dry up too fast and their tentacles won't just stick to everything they touch.

Lovely violet sea snail! The raft of mucus bubbles helps the animal stays afloat upside down. Preying on floating creatures like bluebottles is also a way it helps itself stays afloat. How "clever" - if that means anything to a sea snail : )

This by-the-wind sailor is about 2 cm across. The red arrow points at the sail. The blue arrow points at the disc which contains many small air chambers to help the animal stay afloat.

This is the first time I saw some blue buttons (Porpita species) with the disc (blue arrow) and the tentacles (red arrow) still intact. A Porpita with its tentacles fully extended is just incredibly beautiful ( see here). The first time I saw the dead ones which had lost their tentacles, I thought they were some dress buttons!

My previous posts about the Blue Layer:
The Blue Layer - Blue bottle, by-the-wind sailor, violet shell
The Blue Layer - Sea lizard

Beachcombing finds I: Live goose barnacles

2009-08-16T02:14:00.004+08:00

Friday was wet and windy. So I went beachcombing on Saturday, hoping that the strong winds had brought to shore some interesting creatures. The weather was still wet and windy on Saturday.

I started from the South Cottesloe beach and walked ~ 4 km to North Fremantle (Port Beach). The walk was not very comfortable as it was cold and windy. Within an hour, my nose started to run freely. And the water droplets in the wind kept blurring my glasses and the lens of my camera.

Anyway, I found some live goose barnacles on a broken wooden pallet. And the beach was also littered with lots of blue bottles and dislodged seaweeds (see my next post).

The broken wooden pallet, about 1 m x 1 m in size, that was covered with goose barnacles.

There were very few goose barnacles on the upper surface of the pallet, but the lower surface seemed to be full of them. So I turned the pallet over.

There must be hundreds of them making the pallet their home. They didn't look desiccated, like those I found on a log last weekend. So I suspect these barnacles must have arrived on the South Cottesloe beach not very long ago.

The jointed legs of a goose barnacle - one of the indications that these animals are crustaceans, like shrimps.
A barnacle uses its legs to comb the water for food particles and small planktonic animals and sweep them to its mouth.

Quite a number of the barnacles were still alive and they were slowly extending and then retracting their legs. So I was able to take a few close-up shots of their legs. In close-up shots, these animals don't seem so creepy after all.

South Beach, Fremantle - Goose barnacles

2009-08-14T18:45:00.001+08:00

"Goose barnacles acquired their common name from a weird medieval myth. According to this myth, stalked barnacles attached to floating tree trunks were the fruit of the trees themselves, and had the tree kept growing,
each fruit would have developed into a sea bird called the Barnacle Goose!!"
(source: http://www.reef.edu.au)

Last Sunday, having reached a point when I just couldn't take another look at my thesis anymore, I went for a walk on the beach. It has been a long, long time since I last did this.

I was quite excited to find a log with dead goose barnacles on it. The log, at least five meters in length, must have been washed ashore for quite some time. The goose barnacles were all dry and dead.

Last year, I saw a log covered in live goose barnacles on the South Cottesloe beach. Alive, these creatures look really bizarre!
I must be lucky to find them, considering that a log covered in goose barnacles is not an everyday sight on the beach.

"100 Best Blogs for Career-Minded Students"

2009-08-13T23:11:00.011+08:00

I was informed by Amber Johnson of www.onlineschools.org that this site was listed in a recent post (100 Best Blogs for Career-Minded Students) on their blog. I am not sure how well this blog fits the bill. But it's always interesting to hear how others see this blog.

"Bloggers in Various Careers

Many students attend college to discover careers that interest them. The bloggers below write about their jobs with passion and dedication, allowing students a window into different lives.

...

46. Chai's Marine Life Blog: Some people are drawn to water and Chai is definitely one of them. Read this blog from a marine biologist demonstrating passion for his work.

..."

PhinisheD!

2009-08-12T23:45:00.007+08:00

Finally, after three and a half years, I submitted my thesis for examination this afternoon.

And it was really without much ceremony: I gave four copies of my thesis to the graduate school, was told that I will stop receiving my living stipend beginning from tomorrow, and that I will have to start paying for the health insurance from my own pocket beginning from next month. So after submitting my thesis I have become poorer. How anticlimactic!

At UWA, they will give you a "PhinisheD!" mug when you hand in your thesis for examination.

The fun thing today was that I made the rounds with the mug in my hand, telling everyone I know that I have finally given birth after such a long gestation period!

Blog hiatus

2009-05-17T13:32:00.009+08:00

Ok, looks like it's time I take a blog hiatus.
Thanks to all of you who have followed this blog. With winter coming and a PhD thesis to be written, it would be really impossible to keep snorkeling and blogging. I should be back in a few months or probably by end of the year (?) Anyway, do check out my earlier posts and tell me what you think!

And I will just share with you these photos I took last Saturday at South Cottesloe.

These guys looked like some spacecrafts drifting through space.
The one with yellowish rings in the dome (bottom, right) looked so different from others which had white spots.

A tear in the dome. The first time I saw this.

A brittle star under the rock - look at the snakey arms.

A seaweed decorator crab that was washed to the shore. It was about 3 cm across.

A pretty fan worm. They obviously have no operculums (white arrows).

South Cottesloe - Jellyfish (Pseudorhiza haeckeli)

2009-04-27T22:44:00.006+08:00

27.04.09

Despite the advantage of not having lots of swells, visibility still wasn't very impressive today. The water was reasonably calm. So I was thankful I don't have to spend too much energy fighting the current.

I saw the "regulars" - western striped trumpeters and sea trumpeters (in big schools, as usual), silver trevallies, old wives, tarwhines, red-lipped morwongs, banded sweeps, toadies, some leatherjackets (which I find rather difficult to photograph) ... and three sea hares and three octopuses.

But the highlight of today's snorkel had to be this pretty jellyfish which I don't always see!

Net-patterned jellyfish (Pseudorhiza haeckeli)

The animal is about one foot long. I found it over the shallow reef located about 100 m or so from shore. This jellyfish is a rarer sight compared with the Australian spotted jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata). And I have never seen more than one each time.

My earlier encounters with this jellyfish - here, here and here.

South Cottesloe beach - Australian spotted jellyfish

2009-04-19T23:47:00.004+08:00

18.04.09

It was a cloudy day. Underwater, visibility was still bearable. But it would have been greatly improved if there was more sunlight.

My most exciting encounter was the Australian spotted jellyfish, Phyllorhiza punctata. I don't see them every time I hit the water. And I saw three today.

This is the small one that I saw. The other two were about three times bigger than this one.

I experimented with different ways to take their photos. The photo with a blue background (left) was taken near the surface. The other photo (right) was taken from below using the surface as the background.

Taking these photos from below was more challenging because I had to dive down to the bottom and take the shots when I was rising to the surface. (I would have held on to some seagrass or kelps if there were any.)

South Cottesloe - Old wives and catshark

2009-04-13T00:41:00.003+08:00

12.04.2009

I really wasn't in my best shape today when I hit the water. First, I just couldn't clear my right ear and it hurt every time I dived down. And second, my left calf hurt when I woke up in the morning and it still does. Fortunately, the pain in my calf went away when I was snorkeling.

Old wives (Enoplosus armatus)

I saw a school of probably 50 of them about 100 m from shore. There were some adults but most of them looked like juveniles. The water was about 4 m deep. I was quite excited as this was the first time I have seen such a large school of old wives.

Black-spotted catshark (Aulohalaelurus labiosus)

And I saw a black-spotted catshark - almost a month after the first time I saw one.

I just lost sight of a leatherjacket that I had been going after when the catshark glided into view. It could be the same one that I saw last time (?) considering its similar size. I wasn't far from shore, about 50 m; it wasn't too deep either, perhaps 1.5 m.

Anyway, I followed the catshark for quite a while, from the seagrass bed to the algae-covered reef.

And in the end, the catshark hid itself inside this hole and just won't come out. After waiting for 5 minutes, I swam back to the shore.

Cottesloe - sea mist!

2009-04-11T18:10:00.005+08:00

Sea mist at Cottesloe - this is definitely something new for me.

I have barely swum around for 5 minutes before it happened. And it happened really quickly, in a minute or two, when I was still wondering what's happening, South Cottesloe was already engulfed in a thick mist. So, fearing that it might not be safe to snorkel, neither would there be good visibility considering the low light conditions, I got out of the water.

Photo taken at South Cottesloe at 10.51 am

Photo taken at South Cottesloe at 11.45 am, when I decided to call it a day.

This is the photo I first took when I realized something was different.

The Cottesloe groyne has almost vanished into the thick mist.

Cottesloe - Octopus

2009-04-09T06:29:00.002+08:00

I saw this octopus on the shallow reef last Saturday. The water was about 3 m deep. The octopus's head is about 8-10 cm in width. I have seen octopuses a number of times but this one surely has a pretty head!

South Cottesloe Beach - Ascidians

2009-04-07T07:05:00.001+08:00

Some solitary ascidians (sea squirts) that I photographed last weekend. I still don't know there name. They have dark spots on their whitish-yellowish body, looking quite different from the red ones that I have often seen before this. They are about 10 cm plus in height/length.

The animal would close its siphons every time my camera got near.

In this photo, you can see two tube worms (Protula species) (blue arrows) near the sea squirt.

This one is covered in some red algae. I have seen some sea squirts that are almost smothered by algae , with only their siphons exposed.

South Cottesloe Beach - Nudibranch (Mexichromis macropus)

2009-04-06T07:54:00.005+08:00

The Cottesloe waters were so calm last weekend, with very little swell coming in. Visibility was fantastic, possibly 4-5 m or more. So naturally, I had some good time snorkeling and checking out marine life. The highlight last weekend had to be these two nudibranchs Mexichromis macropus (3-4 cm in length) that I found at about 4 m's depth. They were grazing away on a small patch of blue sponge.

The arrow is pointing at the animal's exposed gills. Close-up, it looks like a piece of candy!

Penguin Island - Invertebrates

2009-04-05T06:58:00.004+08:00

Some photos taken at the Penguin Island last Saturday (28.03.09).

The water was choppy and visibility was poor. The highlight of the day's snorkel was this net-patterned jellyfish (Pseudorhiza haeckeli). It's about 15 cm in length with a single oral arm. I found it near the surface in shallow water (~ 1 m). There were a few small fishes swimming along with it (white arrows).

As the visibility was poor, I decided to take close-up shots instead.

I found some colonies of blue-throated ascidians (Clavelina moluccensis)(?) under ledges. You can think of them as sea squirts that live in a colony, joined at their base. In the first photo, you can see that each animal has three blue spots between its two siphons.

And I saw two nudibranchs (Chromodoris westraliensis) while exploring the shallow reef on the north side of the island. These sea slugs are so lovely because of their brilliant colors; they are also easy to photograph because they are slow-moving.

And the orange feather star (Cenolia trichoptera)

Red sea star (Petricia vernicinia)

Mosaic sea star (Pentogonaster dubeni) which I saw for the first time!

Cape Peron - John Point

2009-03-30T07:00:00.012+08:00

Satisfying! That's how I would describe yesterday's snorkel at John Point, Cape Peron, where I went with Truc, Dhruv and Phil.

There's quite a lot of marine life to check out around John Point. I didn't go very far from shore. Still, even in shallow water of 1 meter of so, I had some interesting encounters.

The highlight of the day, for me, had to be this beautiful dragonet!
I suspect it's an orange and black dragonet (Dactylopus kuiteri) but I will have to confirm that. The fish is about 15 cm in length. It was resting on the sand near some shallow reefs (~1 meter) when I spotted it. It didn't look like an active swimmer. It changed its resting locations a few times to avoid me and in the end decided to disappear into some nearby Posidonia seagrass.

I saw a few sea hares (Aplysia dactylomela) today. This one is really special because of the pink edges of its parapodia ("wings"). I don't remember seeing the same thing in others.

Another interesting critter on the shallow reef - a seaweed decorator crab. In fact I saw two of them yesterday. I have seen a dead one before while beachcombing at Trigg beach. This one is much bigger, with a carapace about 10 cm across. Their camouflage was perfect and they just looked like they have merged into the reef. The red arrows are pointing at the crab's limbs.

And I saw many sea urchins sitting in reef holes.

A few tube worms compete with sea urchins for living space in a reef hole. The white arrows point at the ones that have retracted their crowns of reddish feathery tentacles. The red arrow points the one that decided to show off its pretty tentacles again.

Clifton's zoanthids (Isaurus cliftoni)
These colonial cnidarians, which look like elongated, mini watermelons, are quite common on the shallow reef too. The white arrow points at the two rings of tentacles of one individual.

An eleven-armed sea star (Coscinasterias muricata) that looked like it was trying to pry open the shells of its prey (white arrow).

Southern bailer (Melo miltonis)

I saw this large sea snail sitting amid a patch of wireweed (Amphibolis species). The shell must be at least one-foot long. The first time I saw a southern bailer at Monkey Mia, I was so amazed by its size. It simply looks like a lethal weapon to me! The last time I saw one was at the Penguin Island.

Overall, a wonderful snorkel that I had yesterday. There's so much to explore underwater, e.g. shallow reefs, large outcrops, ledges and seagrass beds. John Point is certainly worth a re-visit!

***
Thanks:
to Shadowkiller, a Dive-Oz forum member, who told me that the fish is a dragonet - not a scorpion fish as I initially thought.

Rottnest Island - Bickley Bay (5) - Aplysia gigantea

2009-03-23T05:45:00.003+09:00

One interesting natural phenomenon I observed during my short stay on the Rottnest Island was the mass stranding of the sea hare Aplysia gigantea.

I remember seeing so many of them when I took a walk on the beach at Bickley Bay one morning - I stopped counting at 20. In fact, when I snorkelled at Green Island, I saw many dead sea hares, probably of the same species, in shallow water too.

This one was about 40 cm long. I didn't try to lift it but it looked heavy.

Another big one that was washed ashore.

I noticed that that they got decolorized after a day or two on the shore.

According to The Sea Slug forum, mass mortality or mass stranding is a natural event for many sea hare species. And the reason could be as simple or natural as the animals reaching the end of their life cycle. For this species, the annual mass stranding and mortality occurs every summer.

The Sea Slug Forum Aplysia gigantea fact sheet
The Sea Slug Forum - Mass mortality
The Sea Slug Forum - Big sea slug from Western Australia

Rottnest Island - Bickley Bay (4)

2009-03-22T06:45:00.002+09:00

The small rock island offshore at Bickley Bay is a good spot to find interesting invertebrates.

Zoanthus sangibaricus
Just a few inches below the surface I found a colony of zoanthids (colonial anemones, if you like). Each individual is about 1 cm or so across. Together, the individual animals make a brilliantly colored mat covering a submerged rock.

And this is where I saw a western slate pencil urchin (Phyllacanthus irregularis) for the first time. The animal looks like some outer space creature to me. This one was hiding in a rock crevice.

Aplysia dactylomela
And I saw a big sea hare too. This one is about 20-25 cm in length.

Correction (22 Mar 09):
Zoanthus sangibaricus was mispelled. It should be Zoanthus sansibaricus instead.

South Cottesloe Beach - Octopuses, stingaree, stripeys

2009-03-19T06:50:00.004+09:00

15 Mar 2009

"These guys were so docile
and they just quietly watched me photographing them
from their lairs."

Just because it's an overcast day, it doesn't mean you won't see much underwater. Besides the black-spotted catshark, I also saw three octopuses!

I only managed to get some good shots of two of the octopuses anyway. These guys were so docile and they just quietly watched me photographing them from their lairs.

And I saw a stingaree resting under a rock in shallow water (1 m or so).
The fish is about 50 cm in length.

Lovely stripeys (Microcanthus strigatus)! Underwater butterflies!
Their bright colors plus the way they move around always reminds me of butterflies!

A male prickly leatherjacket (Chaetodermis penicilligera), a zoanthid colony (Zoanthus praelongus) (again!), and a Western Australia nudibranch (Chromodoris westraliensis)(again!)

All these plus the sighting of the catshark made the day's snorkeling experience a fantastic one!

South Cottesloe Beach - Black-spotted catshark

2009-03-18T06:40:00.008+09:00

15 Mar 09

"And I must add that it looked SO GOOD
with the way it swung its tail when it swam."

The highlight of today's snorkel was my bumping into a black-spotted catshark (Aulohalaelurus labiosus). Distribution-wise, the fish is confined to only Western Australia and nowhere else in the world.

This can be considered a rare encounter considering the nocturnal habits of the fish. This one is about 60-70 cm in length. And I must add that it looked SO GOOD with the way it swung its tail when it swam.

I watched it for almost ten minutes. It was pretty active. I saw it checking out holes in the reef and also spots underneath some kelps, probably searching for food.

South Cottesloe Beach - Other invertebrates

2009-03-17T06:40:00.006+09:00

14 Mar 09

Some other colorful marine life that I saw:

While you will often see the khaki sponge at South Cottesloe, there are other sponges in really nice colors, like pink or bright yellow too. Some of them just look like something that you will see in an art class. The arrow above points at some colonial ascidians.

Since the first time I spotted these colonial ascidians, I noticed that these creatures are not that rare on the South Cottesloe Reef.

In fact, I also kept seeing the two creatures below a few times during today's snorkel. I first thought that they were rare on the South Cottesloe Reef - but I was obviously wrong. I am thinking whether I should just forget about taking their photos the next time I see them.

Chromodoris westraliensis
This nudie is about 5 cm in length.

A colony of zoanthids (Zoanthus praelongus)

South Cottesloe Beach - Pretty fan worm

2009-03-16T07:09:00.004+09:00

14 Mar 09

This morning I snorkeled at South Cottesloe with a new friend, Wehdi. We spent some time exploring the shallow reef in the south of the second groyne. Later, after he left, I continued snorkeling at the other side of the groyne too.

The wind was not too strong. The water was quite calm and visibility was not too bad, except that it was a little chilly underwater today, as compared to last Sunday.

And today I bumped into a HUGE school of common buffalo breams (Kyphosus sydneyanus). It could easily be hundreds of them! As I was taking photos of them, I suddenly noticed that they were forming a circle around me! It just happened for a few seconds and the circle broke up by the time I set my camera to underwater video mode! But that few seconds were unbelievable! I have seen a southern eagle ray done that but not hundreds of buffalo breams! This was definitely the highlight of today's snorkel.

And I saw a huge school of western striped trumpeters (Pelates octolineatus) on the shallow reef too. Watching a huge school of fish swimming past or scavenging the reef for food is always an enjoyable experience for me.

As I was exploring the reef, I noticed that there were more marine worms, especially tube worms or fan worms around than I initially thought.

The crown of this fan worm (also called feather duster worm) is about 6-8 cm across.

A close-up on the crown:
The feathers are tentacles with tiny hairs (cilia) on them.
The animal uses the beating hairs to drive water through the feathers. The cilia get the food particles in the water and pass them down to the mouth in the center of the crown. The animal not only uses the tentacles to filter feed, but also to breathe!

More common than the pretty feather duster worm on the reef is the Protula species tube worm. This worm is smaller than the previous one which has a pretty crown. This one is 2 cm or so across.

And I also saw this curious fan worm look-alike! The tube seems to be buried within the sponge. Black feathers! For a while, I thought somebody has buried some plastic gadget into the reef.

When I was on my way back to shore, I also spotted a huge school of wordward's pomfrets (Schuettea wordwardi).

I did see a southern eagle ray (Myliobatis australis). But the nearshore visibility was really poor, as you can see from the photo above, so I decided that there's no point taking a shot. On the other hand, I did take a few shots of a squid, but it just didn't turn out alright, so I can't put them up too : (

Rottnest Island - Bickley Bay (3)

2009-03-15T06:29:00.001+09:00

The zebra fish (Girella zebra) - common over the seagrass beds at Bickley Bay

Rottnest Island - Bickley Bay (2)

2009-03-14T06:40:00.003+09:00

Bickley Bay on a summer morning

Seaweed adding colors to the underwater world at Bickley bay

Some fishes of Bickley Bay - I couldn't quite make out what the fishes in the first two photos are, but the third (last) one shows a couple of common buffalo breams.

Stingers! If there's one thing that I must warn you about Bickley Bay, it's the stingers! And one afternoon, I actually swam into a swarm of stingers. And whichever direction I turned, they were in my face - and naturally, I got stung! I was just thankful that the pain was bearable and non-fatal : )

Rottnest Island - Bickley Bay (1)

2009-03-13T07:56:00.009+09:00

Bickley Bay is not one of the best snorkeling spots at Rottnest. I snorkelled there just because it's located near the Kingstown barracks, where I stayed during my last visit to the island early this February.

My snorkeling buddy Takami and I explored the Bickley Bay area on the first three afternoons we were on the island. I was quite impressed by the marine life I saw there, especially near the small rock island about 60-100 m offshore. In fact, it's at Bickley Bay that I saw my first nudibranch!

The gold-spotted sweetlips (Plectorhincus flavomaculatus) is one of the fishes I came across again and again around the seagrass beds at Bickley Bay.

South Cottesloe Beach - White-barred boxfish, colonial ascidians and sea sponges

2009-03-12T06:59:00.002+09:00

Last Sunday was a wonderful day to explore the South Cottesloe Reef. Wind speeds were below 15 knots most of the morning and the sea was quite calm. And the skies were mostly cloudless too.

When I ventured out to about 100 m from shore with my snorkeling buddies Truc and Jude, we found calm waters and excellent visibility. I thought of showing them where the fan corals are but in the end, I just couldn't find the spots where many colonies are growing.

Anyway, last Sunday was definitely Truc's lucky day as he saw a leafy sea dragon! Unfortunately it had already disappeared into the seagrass when I got there and I missed the opportunity to take some fantastic photos : (

Anyway, I did see something new last Sunday.

A male white-barred boxfish (Anoplocapros lenticularis) at a depth of about 3 m.

Colonial ascidians (related to blue-throated ascidians)(?)

Seas sponges with creatures that look like marine worms on them

Possibly some zoanthids (colonial anemones)

The sides of many submerged rocks were covered by sea anemones.

Truc and Jude spotted this large globe fish - the largest I have seen so far, almost 30 cm in length I think. The post about my first encounter with this fish is HERE. Anyway, when I got nearer to take a shot, I saw a nudie next to it, a Chromodoris westraliensis.

And we noticed that its right eye looks funny, probably blind I suspect.

South Cottesloe Beach - western smooth boxfish

2009-03-11T06:22:00.003+09:00

The western smooth boxfish (Anoplocapros amygdaloides) at a depth of 4 m or so, hanging around a mat of khaki sponge.

This is a fish that no matter how many times I see it, I will never get bored!

South Cottesloe Beach - schooling fish (5)

2009-03-10T06:18:00.003+09:00

A school of Woodward's pomfrets (Schuettea woodwardi)

South Cottesloe Beach - schooling fish (4)

2009-03-09T06:13:00.001+09:00

A school of very camera-shy (and snorkeler-shy) blackspot goatfish (Parapeneus signatus)

South Cottesloe Beach - schooling fish (3)

2009-03-08T06:56:00.002+09:00

A school of silver trevally (Pseudocaranx dentex) (?) searching the algae-covered reef for food

South Cottesloe Beach - schooling fish (2)

2009-03-07T07:40:00.002+09:00

Sea trumpeters (Pelsartia humeralis)

South Cottesloe Beach - schooling fish (1)

2009-03-06T06:32:00.004+09:00

This and the next few posts will still be about the fishes I saw last Saturday.

Schooling fishes are nice to watch. It's amazing how they can swim in a huge group in unison without running into each other. And it's a nice experience to see them swim in a circle around you. And it's an even nicer experience when I could see those schooling fishes in shallow water about 1.5 m or less!

Western-striped trumpeters (Pelates octolineatus)

Snorkeling and swimming

2009-03-05T07:31:00.005+09:00

"Must I know how to swim
before I snorkel?"

I can't pretend to be a professional - so I can only say that my personal opinion is "ideally yes".

I have been swimming quite regularly for many years before I started to snorkel. And I can see that some basic skills in swimming really help.

You see, the act of floating passively on the surface isn't hard and you don't have to know swimming to do that. But, for two reasons, I think it's good to know swimming before you snorkel:

First - more fun
If you swim well and are confident in the water, you can do a lot more than simply drifting around. For example, you can dive down as you wish and explore ledges, caves or arches near the bottom.
Also, you won't have to restrict yourself to only shallow spots near the shore anymore. You can explore spots further from shore, which may be a shallow reef that is separated from shore by deeper water. Those spots may turn out to be quite rich in marine life as they are less disturbed by the beachgoers.

Second - safer
If you swim well and are confident in the water, you are less likely to freak out when things go wrong. For example, for some reasons, you get a leg cramp. Or one of your fins threaten to come off because the fin strap has somehow become loose. Or you accidentally breathe in some water and start to cough. They all happened to me before, so I know.

Having said all that, don't forego an opportunity to go snorkeling and explore the underwater wonders just because you can't swim. Just go with someone who can keep an eye on you and go places that are safe, then you are alright.

I believe that people of all levels of swimming abilities or even the lack of it are entitled to enjoying the beauty underwater. I can promise you that it's very different from watching corals and fishes through the glass of an aquarium.

Received a special mention from a fellow blogger!

2009-03-04T10:38:00.007+09:00

What a surprise!
I just found out that Paul , a fellow blogger, has put up a post about the new Rottnest Island Management Plan, and in his post, he sounded quite impressed by some of the photos I put up here or just my effort, or maybe both .

South Cottesloe Beach - Fiddler ray

2009-03-04T07:05:00.003+09:00

Fiddler ray (Trygonorhina fasciata), partly hidden in seagrass debris on the sandy floor. The water was about 4 m deep.

As the seagrass debris moved in the current, more of the fish's body became visible.

The fish's head and pectoral fins fuse to form a large flattened disc. Probably because of it's large round head and a long tail, it gets to be a member of the guitarfish family : )

The large dorsal fins on the fish's tail.

South Cottesloe Beach - Prickly leatherjacket

2009-03-03T06:37:00.005+09:00

Welcome to the world of the prickly leatherjacket,
where the boys are pretty and the girls are ... okay.

Last Saturday I saw two fishes for the first time - the fiddler ray and the prickly leatherjacket (Chaetodermis penicilligera).

In fact, I saw two prickly leatherjacket couples. They seemed to always stay within 1 -2 m of each other. I even made a short video clip of them but alas, the video quality is appalling after I uploaded them online, so I will forget about it.

Well, first, let's check out the pretty male:

Look at the tail, I think that's the most beautiful part of the fish's body.

The snout - not so pretty... it reminds me of a boar's face.

Anyway, what's really nice to watch is the fish's undulating dorsal fin when it's swimming.

Unfortunately, the picture here can't quite show it. But believe me, it just looks so nice when it swims around, undulating it's dorsal fin. It's like the fin runs on battery or something.

Well, now let's check out the girl!

Hmm...

And those things on its body? The "tentacles". Apparently many juvenile leatherjackets have these "tentacles" but only the prickly leatherjackets retain them for life. I still have no idea what those tentacles do : (

Although the girl doesn't look like a star, I think when it comes to getting camouflaged on a seaweed-covered reef, the girl will certainly do better!

Thanks:
to Shadowkiller, a Dive-Oz forum member, who id the fish for me.

South Cottesloe Beach - Southern eagle rays

2009-03-02T07:40:00.001+09:00

Last Saturday was my lucky day for snorkeling. I saw the southern eagle ray (Myliobatis australis) each time I hit the water. That means I saw one for every hour I spent underwater!

The first one:

I followed this one when I saw it swim past me.

Then, for some unknown reason, the fish went down and stopped in a pit in the reef. It's then that I saw the trevally that was tagging along with the eagle ray (white arrow). The eagle ray rested for a minute or so in the pit and then it started to flap its fins again and take off.

And so the trevally continued to tag along. This is the first time I saw a trevally following an eagle ray.

And the second one:

This one swam too fast and didn't seem to want to hang around.
I noticed that sometimes, when you swim after the eagle ray, it will just swim in a big circle and if you wait, you will see it get near or come back again.

The third eagle ray:

When I first saw it, it was swimming over the seagrass and it was impossible to take any reasonably good photos. So I waited and after a while, it swam over the sand and I was rewarded with some good shots and a good view of the fish.

South Cottesloe Beach - Fan corals and marine worms

2009-03-01T16:08:00.003+09:00

I just found a nice snorkeling spot in South Cottesloe, which is about 150 m from shore. Depending on the tides, the reef may be quite shallow, like one or two feet below the surface. The only challenge is the swim that you have to do to get there. Between the reef and the shore, the water could get to 4-5 m deep. So it doesn't sound like be a good idea for beginners , and for people whose ideas of snorkeling is just drifting around without too much swimming.

I was rewarded with the sights of numerous colonies of fan corals on the sides of some huge rocks and I saw three marine worms who are their neighbors too.

This is the location of the first fan coral colony I spotted on Saturday morning .

It certainly doesn't look very impressive. However, when I got home and looked at the images taken, I realized that the polyps were extending their tentacles!

I went back on Sunday afternoon to explore the same area more thoroughly and found more on other rocks!

Well, this is Cottesloe! Not Penguin island. I never thought that I could see such a beautiful growth of fan corals in Cottesloe.

In this colony, you can see the the blue arms of some brittle stars entwined with the fan coral branches. At the same time, you can see some polyps extending their white tentacles - probably busy collecting food from the water.

Blue arrows - the arms of brittle stars
White arrows - the tentacles of the fan coral polyps

And below are more shots of fan corals with their white tentacles on display.

This last colony is flanked by some blue sponges.

And below are the ones that have brittle stars in their branches.

I also saw this light-orange or buff fan coral - a rare color among the fan coral colonies in the area.

Now, the neighbors - I saw a tube worm, and two fan worms. The fan worms were an exciting find as it's the first time I saw them.

A tube worm (the critter with the white tentacular fan).
I had a post about this critter earlier on.

And below are the two fan worms I spotted living near the fan corals. Don't they just look like some exotic flowers! Their crowns of tentacles were about 5 cm across.

Well, I don't think I have to spend four hours on public transport to get to Penguin Island to see fan corals anymore!

Rottnest Island - Little Salmon Bay (4)

2009-02-27T07:10:00.001+09:00

The last of my Little Salmon Bay "series".
Two more photos of what I found in the shallow reef.

A sea urchin

A common octopus

Rottnest Island - Little Salmon Bay (3)

2009-02-26T07:30:00.003+09:00

I certainly didn't (and couldn't) photograph all those fishes that swam past me at the Little Salmon Bay. But I did get some close-up shots of two fishes that I wanted a lot - the crested morwong and the blue-spotted goatfish.

Western crested morwong (or magpie morwong)
(Cheilodactylus gibbosus)
Such a beautiful fish!
I have seen it in Cottesloe, Penguin Island, and the Marmion Marine Park. But I was never able to take a good shot of it till now. They have large rubbery lips, like other morwongs.

This is the best photo I ever took of the blue-spotted goatfish (Upeneichthys vlamingii).
The blue spots on the head and the body are so easy to see. It is also called the red mullet because it turns bright red after death.

Moon wrasse (Thalassoma lunare)
The colorful fish gets its name from the new-moon shape on its tail fin.

Stripey (Microcanthus strigatus)
If you have read my previous posts about stripeys, you will surely know I just love this fish! Watching a school of stripeys moving around on the reef - and swimming after them - was so much fun.

I have to admit this is not a very good photo. Anyway I suspect these are juvenile western king wrasses (Coris auricularis).

Rottnest Island - Little Salmon Bay (2)

2009-02-25T06:26:00.003+09:00

Well, back to the Rottness Island "series" again.

A male western king wrasses (Coris auricularis) about 30 cm in length

Another male western king wrasse of a similar size.
Look at the red/pink on their cheeks, I guess that's why they are also called the blushing wrasse.

This one is a female. Female and juvenile western king wrasses are known to set up cleaning stations on the reef. They help clean fishes that visit them of parasites.

A male and a female hanging out in the same spot

Penguin Island marine life (4)

2009-02-24T06:49:00.002+09:00

I just realized that I had forgotten to include the fan coral photos in my last few Penguin Island posts. So this will be the last of my Penguin Island posts instead.

In this photo, the bluish things in the fan coral branches are some brittle stars. See here for more images of fan corals and a closer look of brittle stars.

Penguin Island marine life (3)

2009-02-23T07:35:00.006+09:00

One last post about the marine life Paul and I saw at Penguin Island.

Tarwhine (Rhabdosargus sarba)
They were hanging around in the same spot as the big school of tailors that I wrote about in my last post. The tailors swam near the surface; the tarwhine near the sandy bottom.

Western striped trumpeters (Pelates octolineatus)

I have seen a school of western striped trumpeters both times I snorkeled at the north-east side of the island. So they are regulars there I guess. But still, nothing beats the HUGE school of western striped trumpeters that I bumped into at South Cottesloe!

False Tasmanian blenny (Parablennius intermedius)
or Eyecheek blenny (Parablennius postomaculomaculatus) ?
I found this one and shortly after, another smaller one, perching on the reef surface when I was snorkeling at the west side of the island. It was about 5 cm in length. The blenny has two yellow antennae, called "cirri", over its eyes. And it has large eyes that can swivel in different directions.

Red-lipped morwong (Cheilodactylus rubrolabiatus)

1. Moonlighter (Tilodon sexfasciatum)
2. Zebra fish (Girella zebra)
3. Garfish (Hyporhampus melanochir)(?) - This fish has an elongated lower jaw.
4. Western talma (Chelmonops curiosus)

Other fishes sighted but not photographed or that images not shown here include old wives, stripeys, gobbleguts, blue-spotted goatfish and banded toadfish (toadies).

Thanks:
to JimSwims, a Dive-Oz forum member, who id the blenny as Eyecheek Blenny.

References:
1. Beneath Busselton Jetty (2003) by Ann Storrie, Sue Morrison & Peter Morrison
2. Australian Marine Life (2000) by Graham J Edgar
3. Sea Fishes of Southern Australia (1986) by Barry Hutchins & Roger Swainston

Penguin Island marine life (2) - Pomatomus saltatrix, the tailor

2009-02-22T11:06:00.006+09:00

I saw a huge school of tailors (Pomatomus saltatrix, or Pomatomus saltator) on the west side of the island, which was exposed to the Indian Ocean. Where they were hanging around, the water was about 3 meters' deep.

These fish are migratory and travel the world's ocean, except the east Pacific.

Voracious and cannibalistic - that's what they are. Hence, they tend to swim in schools of similarly-sized fish. (I guess, if there's any small ones, they would have been quickly consumed by others(?) But how about the young?).

Look at them, how gorgeous!
But beware, they are called "Tailor" because they can cut nets and lines with their knife-edged teeth! Wikipedia says "They should be handled with care due to their ability to snap at an unwary hand." Anyway, in the US, they are called the bluefish.

Another interesting bit of information is this:
"The locations of beaches with feeding schools can usually be identified from a distance because of the associated crowd of anglers" (Graham Edgar's book).

Thanks:
to JimSwims, a Dive-Oz forum member who identified the name of this fish for me.

References:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluefish
2. Australian Marine Life (2000) by Graham J Edgar
3. Sea Fishes of Southern Australia (1986) by Barry Hutchins & Roger Swainston

Penguin Island marine life (1)

2009-02-21T20:50:00.004+09:00

Today I went snorkeling at the Penguin Island with a friend, Paul. Going with a buddy not only makes it safer, but also more interesting. First, you get to interact with another person, not just with the fishes. Moreover, very often your buddy might spot an interesting creature that you miss.

We went to the west, south and north-east sides of the island. Generally, the water was rather murky or contained too much seaweed and other unknown debris. And to make it worse, it was a cloudy morning, so the underwater visibility wasn't that fantastic. Nevertheless, we still saw quite a number of interesting marine creatures when we hit the water.

And Paul was quite happy that he saw a wild penguin today.

One thing I noticed today is that there were so many ctenophores (comb jellies) in the water. Anyway, as comb jellies don't sting, it was nothing to worry about. I just think of them as some teabags, or maybe small plastic bags, drifting around in the water.

These creatures look plain but are nice to look at when there's sunlight. The hairs that run down the length of their bodies, when beating, will generate some rainbow-like colors.

Another thing I noticed today is that there seemed to be fewer purple-tipped sea anemones compared to the last two times I visited the island. Many of the sea anemones I saw just looked whitish.

Anyway, I did find this pretty sea anemone tucked away between seaweed in the shallow reef in north-east part of the island.

I checked out the colony of Zoanthus praelongus (sausage zoanthids) that I photographed during my last visit - they were still there. In fact the colony seemed to have grown. Also, most of them have retracted their tentacles, unlike what I saw before.

I found quite a number of western slate pencil urchins (Phyllacanthus irregularis) in holes and crevices in the reef. They are quite large, probably 10-15 cm across (including spines). They look really different from the usual sea urchins, which have sharp spines. They emerge at night to scrape algae from rocks. Since algae will not move whether it is day or night, I suppose they emerge at night as a way to avaoid predatots.

I saw a red sea star (Petricia vernicinia) for the first time! On its upper surface, there are many small balloon-like structures (the white bits) which they use for respiration and getting rid of waste.

Another exciting find (for me) is the orange feather star (Cenolia trichoptera)(?) I found it sitting next to a sea urchin inside a hole in the reef.

I saw the feather star for the first time when I was exploring the South Cottlesloe shore on a low-tide morning.

By the way, I also saw a sea cucumber and just like before, I couldn't get a sharp image. Arrghh!

While we were exploring the reef in teh north-east side of the island, Paul spotted a southern bailer (Melo miltonis) too. I first saw the animal when I snorkeled at Penguin Island last December.

Rottnest Island - Little Salmon Bay

2009-02-21T07:29:00.003+09:00

When I was at Rottnest Island last week, I snorkelled at three different locations: Parker Point, Little Salmon Bay and Green Island. In my next few posts, I will be showing you photos I took at the Little Salmon Bay.

This underwater plaque marks the beginning of the Little Salmon Bay snorkel trail

The shallow reef where pink corals (Pocillopora damicornis) grow

More colonies of pink corals - no idea why a lot of them look a little too pale. Dead? Sick? Or just natural color variation? Or possibly a different species of reef-building coral?

Pink corals usually live in tropical waters. However, thanks to the warm Leeuwin Current, the otherwise temperate waters of Rottnest has become habitable to the pink corals.

A close-up of the pink corals

Rottnest Island - last post about Green Island

2009-02-20T07:41:00.003+09:00

I guess I'll wrap up my series of posts about Green Island with this one.

Green Island is indeed a good snorkeling spot. I find a good variety of marine animals and plants there. What's really great is that they are so accessible - you don't have to go really deep or venture too far from shore to see something interesting. And I was so thrilled to find fan corals there too.

I am sure I will go back some time, and maybe spend a whole day there. There's so much to photograph!

Rottnest Island - fishes at Green Island (2)

2009-02-19T07:11:00.001+09:00

Red-lipped morwong (Cheilodactylus rubrolabiatus) - my favourite. They have tasty lips that you want to kiss!

A western scalyfin (Palma occidentalis)

Blackspot goatfish (Parupeneus signatus)

In this last photo, there's also a juvenile western scalyfin (I think).

Rottnest Island - fishes at Green Island (1)

2009-02-18T07:56:00.001+09:00

Of course, besides the invertebrates that I wrote about in my last few posts, there were fishes at Green Island too. The most amazing to watch was the big school of common buffalo breams (Kyphosus sydneyanus) that I found over the shallow reef.

And the ones in the deeper water...

For some reason, I find this last photo interesting. It's possibly because they somehow remind me of a miniature dolphin. I remember I was taking the photo of some common buffalo breams then. But they just don't turn out looking like one at all.

Rottnest Island - Zoanthids (Zoanthus and Palythoa)

2009-02-17T07:55:00.003+09:00

In addition to Zoanthus praelongus, I saw a number of other zoanthid species at Green Island too.

It just happened that very recently, Dr James Reimer, a zoanthid expert of the University of Ryukyus, Okinawa, visited this blog and left a comment. So I asked for his help and got the names of these other beautiful animals.

Zoanthus sansibaricus (?) (He said this is a tough one to id.)

Zoanthus vietnamensis (This photo is also in my last fan corals post.)

Zoanthus sp ( related to Z. vietnamensis?)

Zoanthus sansibaricus

Palythoa tuberculosa (or Palythoa caesia) - this one forms a large encrusting mat with short polyps. It just looks like the individual polyps have melted into the large mat.

According to James, this species produces the palytoxin, and that "No one I know eats them unless they have a death wish". Anyway, he added that parrot fish and crabs do consume this poisonous creatures on occasions.

The Wildsingapore.com webpage says that common hairy crabs, filefishes and nudibranchs can eat zoanthids without getting into trouble. Check out their wonderful fact sheet about zoanthids here.

Featured!

2009-02-16T18:44:00.005+09:00

Fantastic! I was so pleasantly surprised to find both my friend Steve's diving blog and this blog received a special mention in the February issue of the Marine Photobank Bulletin. In fact it was Steve who told me about it.

On second thought, I think it means that I am right in (almost) always being careful in what I put up here - because people are watching : )

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Added 4 Mar 09:
I just found the link to the pdf version of the bulletin, if it interests anyone : ) HERE

Rottnest Island - fan corals

2009-02-15T14:18:00.009+09:00

The first time I saw fan corals (Mopsella klunzingeri?) was at the Penguin Island; the second time, Green Island.

I mentioned in my last post that there were underwater overhangs and arches at the southern side of the Green Island. That is where the fan corals live.

Anyway, as I was still a little too timid to dive down to check them out (What if I got trapped down there!?), I decided to only take photos from a distance. So I didn't check whether there were brittle stars in the fan coral branches, like those at the Penguin Island.

Also, I found some fan corals that live amid a large mat of (I think) zoanthids, or colonial anemones if you like.

Rottnest Island - Zoanthus praelongus

2009-02-14T09:37:00.013+09:00

This Wednesday (11 Feb) was the first time I snorkeled at Green Island. I spent about an hour or so there, in the company of two friends, Beorn and Takami.

The Green Island (right) really doesn't look like it has much to offer until you hit the water. On the shoreward side of the island, there's a reef platform covered in algae and seagrass. The other side of the island gets deeper and bigger schools of fishes hang around there. There are some caves or channels to explore too. I saw some beautiful fan corals. I will put up the photos of those later.

The Green Island is a sanctuary zone. But visitors are allowed to fish from the jetty.

As I was swimming under the jetty, I found a colony of Zoanthus praelongus on one of them. This is interesting because all the ones I found previously (1, 2) were on limestone reef, where they were either on some sponges or amid seagrasses. So, for record's sake, I thought I should write about it here.

And the other colony I saw was on the reef.

Rottnest Island - Chromodoris westraliensis

2009-02-13T07:00:00.002+09:00

After weeks of hiatus, finally this blog is back into action!

For the coming weeks, I will write about those amazing marine creatures that I saw while snorkeling at Rottnest Island. I was there the last few days attending my annual summer school. The first few days I just snorkeled near when I stayed. On the fourth day, I went to the Parker Point Marine Park, Little Salmon Bay as well as the Green Island.

Bickley Bay - the beach near where I stayed.

Bickley Bay is a special place for me - it's where I saw the southern eagle ray for the first time, and now - the nudibranch for the first time.

I was actually making my way to the shore when I caught a glimpse of bright colors on the shallow reef. And when I saw the creature's flatworm-like body with feather-like structures on its back, I know it's a nudibranch. The feathers are the animal's exposed gills. Nudibranch (or nudie) means "naked gills".

The next day, when I was exploring the rock crevices and holes around that rock island offshore of Bickley Bay (the small island in the first photo), I saw a nudie again - the same species. And again I saw another one when snorkeling at Green Island.

My reference says that Chromodoris westraliensis is the most common nudie around Rottnest Island and the Perth waters. Although they are said to be often hanging around sponges on which they feed, I don't remember seeing them on sponges. Anyway, they can extract toxins from sponges and use them for defense.

And also, these pretty animals are hermaphrodites. So I guess gender equality is not an issue in their world.

South Cottesloe Beach - Tubeworm

2009-01-14T07:00:00.002+09:00

I found this pretty tube worm, Protula species, which anchored itself in a crevice in the reef. The water was probably one meter deep.

The calcareous tube that housed the animal's body was not visible. The bright red and white fans (about 2-3 cm across) were its tentacles.

I did see it retract its tentacular fans twice but I was not fast enough with my camera. When the animal retracts its tentacular fans, it will seal off its tube with an operculum (like a small lid).

South Cottesloe Beach - Banded spined brittle star

2009-01-13T07:23:00.002+09:00

I found this banded spined brittle star, Clarkcoma pulchra, under a rock at low tide. It was about 10-12 cm across.

The banded spines on its flexible arms look pretty when you look closer.

Like any brittle star, this creature is fast moving, making it tricky to take a very good photo of it. While its possible to pick up a sea star, its not possible with a brittle star. After all, you really wouldn't want to do that as the animal's arms are said to be quite fragile and will break off easily - hence the name star, I guess.

South Cottesloe Beach - Sea anemones

2009-01-11T07:06:00.007+09:00

I learned something new about the sea anemones at South Cottesloe yesterday.

Don't they look like small buckets filled with bits of shell!

These barrel-like thingies are actually the bodies of sea anemones. Because I couldn't quite see the tentacles or the oral disc the first few times I saw them, I wasn't sure what animals they were.

Yesterday morning I came across one of those barrel-like sea anemone whose oral disc and tentacles are visible. Unlike other sea anemones that I often find at South Cottesloe, this one has short tentacles. Anyway, the lines and the bright orange color in the oral disc surely make the animal pretty.

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I often find sea anemones with red tentacles and green tentacles sitting right next to each other. Their tentacles look very similar except for the color. I suspect they could be the same species with some color variation in their tentacles.

Yesterday I found that the bodies of the two "types" of sea anemones actually have the same body color.

A close-up on the oral disc of the sea anemone with green tentacles.