First dive of the season, and my first dive since retiring!
The weather and tides were right, and as we now live only a few minutes from Ricketts it was a great time to get back into the water. There had been strong winds and a fair bit of rain earlier in the week, so the visibility wasn't the best. We saw good numbers of Snapper, but only a few Leatherjackers and Zebrafish. There was a group of Moonlighters hovering around one particular part of the reef, and there were also several Banjo Sharks feeding on the bottom. I had a fleeting glimpse of a Port Jackson Shark, but no luck in finding any others in the gutters and caves.
Kirsty Batchelor.
The Yellow-stripe Leatherjacket is generally a pale brown to an ash grey in colour, with a yellow (or orange) patch at the base of the tail. It grows to around 30 cm, and is commonly found on kelp reefs. They are often found in male/female pairs, with the male having four small spines at the base of the tail, and the yellow patch on the female extending onto the tail.
Moonlighters have six dark bands down each side, over a body that graduates from silver to yellow. Juveniles have a large white-edged black spot on the dorsal fin near the rear of the body. Adults are either solitary, or may be found in pairs. They can grow up to 35 to 40 cm.
The Common Stingaree grows to about 45 cm, and can vary from a uniform brown to grey, with a dusky shading below the eyes. They have a small dorsal fin on the tail, and often are found in small groups.
Snapper are a member of the Bream family, and can grow to 1.3 metres in length, and weigh up to 20 kg. Snapper form schools in shallow water to spawn once the water temperature reaches 18c. Growth is slow, and larger fish will be more than 20 years old. Juvenile Snapper have bright blue spots all over their body. Adults have a pronounced hump-headed appearance, and tend to spend most of their time in deeper water.
The Port Jackson Shark eats bivalve molluscs, and its teeth are plate-like rather than the razor-sharp teeth normally associated with sharks. Not considered dangerous to divers, but they do have venomous barbs in front of each dorsal fin. It comes into shallow waters to breed during the late Winter months. They lay spirally flanged eggs, which are screwed into cracks or under ledges, where the young take a year to develop. Taking about ten years to reach maturity, they grow to between 1 and 1.6 metres.
Moonlighters have six dark bands down each side, over a body that graduates from silver to yellow. Juveniles have a large white-edged black spot on the dorsal fin near the rear of the body. Adults are either solitary, or may be found in pairs. They can grow up to 35 to 40 cm.
You can often see large shoals of Zebrafish around some of the rocky ledges of the Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary. Sometimes they will ignore you completely, and other times will disappear into crevices and caves as soon as possible.
Sea Sweep are often very inquisitive, and will often come and investigate divers. They can have a lifespan of almost 70 years, and take more than 14 years to reach sexual maturity.
The Velvet Seastar is also known as the Cushion Star. Growing to an arm radius of 90mm, is not often seen and little is known of its biology. Found in water ranging from 1 to 60 meters, from Caloundra, Queensland, to Tasmania, and west to the Houtman Abrolhos islands off the coast of West Australia, this seastar feeds on lace coral, sea squirts and sponges.
Divers: Peter Batchelor and Kirsty Batchelor
Weather/Sea: calm
