After the fantastic diving on
Pom Pom, none of the vols were keen to go and explore a Kalapuan seagrass bed on a Sat morning which was our fun recreational diving day. The boat stopped and we got out and stood on the bottom. Which way is the deep water? Stupid question, the seabed was flat for about 2km.
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| Long leaf seagrass, grows to almost 2ft tall |
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This is a worm of some sort.
I will look it up when we get back |
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| Seriously stinging burrowing Anemone |
A few metres away we found our first patch of seagrass, The visibility was good and when you are only looking 2 feet, you can really see the cool small stuff. Several seahorses, pipefish and cuttlefish were seen as well as green camoflaged file fish. Of course, I had the camera and didn't see any of these. I had chosen to use a tank not snorkell - easier to take photos except I hadn't realised the fact that my boobs were scraping the seabed and stiring up the muck was a major disadvantage.
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All the hard substrate we found was covered
with oysters and sponges |
Fortunately the tide was coming in and the water was getting deeper so I got enough depth to wallow without touching the mud. The other secret I learnt was that if you face the current the sediment washed behind you. Don't dive behind me. Eat my muck cloud "sucker".
The biggest surprise was that this was fun and different. We all spent 90-120min in wading depth water with people standing up and calling to each other about the critter they had seen. Lots of
different biodiversity here, After the party tonight we will all have to study the books to find out just what we saw.
