2022

There were masses of Sea Stars off to the West of Rye Pier on this dive, particularly about half way along the pier. Some just seemed to be sitting on the bottom, but there wre lots that were seen hunched up, feeding on something they had caught. There were several Magpie Perch around, along with a few Senator Wrasse, and a good school of Herring. We saw lots of Feather Duster Worms on this dive, both under the pier, and out at Elsa's reef. We only spotted one Pale Octopus out past Elsa's. There were a couple of large Smooth Rays around, one with a tail and one without. Kirsty managed to film the one with a tail as soon as she got into the water, but I didn't see it. All in all, a nice way to end the year!

About 9 pm, incoming SS Penola ( 500 tons) struck and ran down City of Launceston which began to settle almost immediately. Passengers and crew transferred with difficulty to Penola. Sunken vessel valued at about 17,000 pounds - not insured. Sold by auction to Barrett, engineer of City of Launceston, who sold to a syndicate but salvage attempts eventually abandoned. Victorian Steam Navigation Board Inquiry held City of Launceston to blame for accident. Two separate Supreme Court actions by the respective owners for damages found in favour of the plaintiff in each case! An appeal by the aggrieved owner of the Penola for a non suit or a new trial was ultimately refused. Eleutheria, lighter, exhibited light at wreck site until it too sank. City of Launceston was the first shipwreck to be declared an Historic Shipwreck under new Victorian legislation. Built for the Melbourne to Launceston Bass Strait run, it was a regular trader across Bass Strait. - See more at: http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/shipwrecks/124#sthash.aPC0R645.dpuf

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

Our first dive for the season was in perfect weather at Flinders. Visability was a bit cloudy at times, partly due to the swarms of tiny fry in the water. We only saw a couple of weedy Sea Dragons, with eggs, and a couple of Cowfish, but we did see lots of Magpie Perch, Blue-throated Wrasse, Weed Whiting, and several Dusky Morwongs. Out past the end of the pier we saw a Rainbow Cale, and a small school of Mado, along with a couple of small Moonlighters/

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

This was my first solo dive in almost forty years, although at this depth I could have been snorkelling, apart of wanting to maintain a particular angle whilst filming.

By this dive I feel I have a better appreciation of the various behaviours shown by the Cuttlefish, and I think that this helped me to get some footage that I was really happy with. The water clarity had also improved slightly, which also helped with filming.

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

Kirsty and I went back to Stony Point for our second dive with the Cuttlefish. We originally thought that we might try for Black Point, which reportedly had even more Cuttlefish, but the rocks looked like it would be a difficult walk to the water with all of our gear. So, back to Stony Point, and in for another fantastic dive!

There was lots of mating behaviour, and males chasing off the competition, and protecting the females from interlopers. The colours and patterns being displayed were amazing.

A couple of South Australian politicians, Eddie Hughes, MP, and Clare Scriven, MLC, were at the site today, talking about the increased area set aside to protect the Cuttlefish - a great initiative of the South Australian government. If you look carefully, Kirsty and I can be seen in their video - for all of a couple of seconds :-)

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

Our first dive at the Cuttlefish aggregation site was fantastic! After three years of failed attempts due to bad weather forecasts and COVID19, the drive to Whyalla was well and truly worth it!

Even though the end of May is relatively early in the season there were plenty of Cuttlefish, with mating rituals, threat displays, mating, and egg laying all on view. The males were fronting up to each other, changing colour to dark purple, then exhibiting zebra-striping, side-by-side body alignment, waves of dark colours across the body, and the occasional head-on display with arms spread wide open. We didn't see any physical attacks, although there were plenty of males showing the scars of these fights.

There were very few other fish on view, although I did see a large six-spined Leatherjacket in a cave, with a cleaner shrimp clambering over its side - the first cleaner shrimp I've ever seen!

After eighty minutes we were gettng cold, but torn between staying in the water to watch more of the action, or getting out to warm up. A shallow dive, so Kirsty and I had plenty of air left, and we could have stayed in quite a lot longer, athough our camera batteries would have died...

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

Kirsty and I tried another dive at Quiet Corner, hoping to see an Eagle Ray. Ths was following the advice of a snorkeller we met after our last dive at Ricketts. No Eagle Rays were spotted, and there was very little other fish life seen either. We did see a few Snapper and Zebrafish, a couple of Leatherjackets and Dusky Morwong, but all of the fish seemed to be very timid here - nothing like the normal site where we dive at Ricketts.

There were lots of cracks, crevices, and overhangs, and lots of lush growth on the bottom, so it should have been teeming with life! Quite a disappointment really...

For this dive we had to park on the other side of Beach Road, in one of the side streets. We used our beach trolley to wheel all of our gear down to the path that ran along the waterfont, and locked the trolley to a convenient park bench. It certainly made the relatively long walk a lot easier!

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

Quite murky water close in, but better further out. Lots of Snapper again, perhaps more than on the previous few dives, but the big schools of Zebrafish stole the show this time, grazing on what seemed to be a fairly sparse bottom. Kirsty and I saw a few pairs of large Leatherjacket species, several Old Wives, a few Dusky Morwong and Moonlighters, and what I think is a juvenile Dusky Morwong in the shallows, on the way back in at the end of the dive.

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

There were still lots of Snapper around on this dive, and once again they followed us around, as if we were the biggest fish in the school. There were quite a few Zebrafish grazing in one small area, and some large Leatherjackets. I saw a couple of Flathead and Moonlighters, and lots of small Sweep near to top of one rocky outcrop fairly close in. Visibility changed markedly during the dive, with some areas being quite murky but other areas being excellent.

Lots to see, and quite a shallow dive lead to us staying in the water for 100 minutes, with both of our cameras running out of battery towards the end of the dive. Kirsty dropped her camera on our way back in, but we were able to find it after going back out past where she had taken her gloves off, and swimming in again while searching the bottom for the camera.

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

Kirsty and I had a great Valentine's Day dive at Rickett's Point, shared with thousands of Snapper! There seemed to be lots of Sea Urchin shells on the floor, so perhaps the culling is continuing in the reserve, and the Snapper are following divers around in the expectation of a free feed... they treated us as the lead fish in the school, and followed us around throughout the dive.

There were a few Leatherjaclets around, and some of them were species that we haven't recognised. We also spotted a couple of maie Moari Wrasse, as well as a Brown-banded Morwong, a couple of Dusky Morwong, a Banjo Shark, Magpie Perch, Silver Sweep, Old Wives, Moonlighters, and Flathead. The visibility varied from over 6 metres in the shallows to under 3 metres in some spots, apparently due to the level of spawning that had been taking place.

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

Having scrubbed a dive at Flinders after less than a minute because the visibility was so terrible, we headed over to Rye, to take our chances there, and it was much, much better!

Lots to see, including Gunn's Leatherjackets, our first Bridled Leatherjacket, a couple of Big-bellied Seahorses, a Sweet Caratasoma nudibranch, tiny Bullseye fish, Long-finned Pike, juvenile Moonlighters, Southern Blue Whiting, a good-sized school of Australian Herring, a Hermit Crab, Magpie Perch, Southern Hulafish, and a Pygmy Leatherjacket that was trying to scare off a competitor by inflating its belly, and of course, lots of Goatfish. When we got out to the Eivion we also saw several Senator Wrasse, and a couple of adult Moonlighters lurking in the shadows under the wreck.

Very warm water, and so much to see, meant that this was a long dive, just on 100 minutes, long enough that my GoPro's battery went flat just as we reached the Eivion.

So glad we weren't put off by having to squeeze back into our wet wetsuits, and didn't drive home after getting out of the water at Flinders!

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

What a difference to our last dive here!

We entered via the ramp at the end of the beach away from the sailing club, and kept fairly close to the rocks on the way out into deeper water. This time, we saw lots of different Leatherjacket species, heaps of Snapper and Sweep, several Old Wives, a couple of schools of Zebrafish, and an enourmous school of East Australian Salmon. We could have spent the entire dive enclosed in the ball of Salmon. I could hear Kirsty squeal with excitement when she spotted them. There were a few more Lion's Mane Jellyfish around this time. Apparently there are reports of large numbers all round the top of the bay at present.

There were still large numbers of Sea Urchins present, and there were some barren areas, but this portion of the reserve hasn't been as badly affected as the area we were in on our last dive.

Find out more, and watch a video of highlights from the dive

This is probably the best visibility that Kirsty and I have ever seen at Flinders Pier - easily 20 Metres!

There were lots of Cowfish, and quite a few Weedy Sea Dragons, with some of the males carrying eggs. There were also lots of Weed Whiting feeding in the seagrass meadows on either side of the pier. We glimpsed a large Smooth Ray off the end of the pier, but it wasn't interested in coming back to check us out.

There were lots of divers in the water, and lots of people on the beach when we finished our dive. The car park was well and truly overflowing, so it was a great days to be there early!