In my quest to hydrate after sweating out several gallons of perspiration on Thursday and Friday, Saturday was an R&R day.
I drove down the coast to Jervis Bay, about 3 hours south of Sydney, ending up in a little town called Currarong, on the north side of the Beecroft Peninsula. The wind shifted on Friday night so it was coming out of the south, so I figured this sheltered bay would be perfect for a little snorkeling...
You can see from this aerial there is a long rocky shoal extending to the northeast.
Perfect for a shore dive...
Lots of fish, particularly class
Chondrichthyes...
I came across at least 8 or 9 small estuary rays (
Dasyatis fluviorum) like this little guy.
Lots of these guys under the ledges and the kelp.
I also saw a beautiful specimen of
Glaucostegus typus, a juvenile shovelnose ray.
He was only a foot or so long- As he gets older his nose will get longer and more pointed.
I saw a few small octopi, but they are quick to take off and hide under the seaweed.
I got a glimpse of a small shark, but he was too far away- just on the edge of visibility.
Since he was up in the water column, he was probably a black-tipped shark.
Most of the other common sharks native to this area are bottom dwellers. Nurse sharks, Bamboo sharks, wobbegongs, Port Jackson sharks are all little reef-Roombas- vacuuming up all the goodies on the bottom.
The onle cool thing I did get on video was a Longtailed Ray who had seen some trauma in his life...
I called him Stubby, for obvious reasons.
Even missing his rudder, he was still pretty graceful...
The snorkling was great- then I headed off to explore the parklands/weapons range just south of Currarong- detailed
in this previous post.
It's Sunday- Laundry this AM- then back to the site this afternoon. Yay.
TBG- ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE
