marinejanine 的最愛

We've still got a veritable plague of these resident on the property and they mostly concentrate their burrows and runs around the periphery of the one poorly maintained but auto irrigated lawn. However nearby human residents continue to report good numbers of these native rats, and the rear slope of the North Dunes continues to support a large population. This large male approached me quite boldly while I was seated in a plastic chair on the lawn, and it was clearly inquisitive, not unaware of my presence.

This ray was circling the outer boulders of the Bower at an easy pace. The monster paparazzi did not appear to bother it.
wingspan: 1.5m
accompanied by a remora - in 2nd photo, see light patch in front of remora (it appears to have likely been there a while)

With a hint of hybridisation with Bluethroat Wrasse, I suspect?
This mature individual was resting patiently in the ideal position for it to get a look at the 2 snorkellers (buddy and me) as soon as we'd entered the water on outgoing tide in near perfect conditions. It was on the shoreward aspect of the small rock pinnacle seen in the last image (included to viewers understand the habitat at this popular shore entry snorkel site, that photo was taken a few minutes before I entered and was taken from the exact entry point).Depth at pinnacle base was around 5m at this stage but at time of exit had dropped about half to 1 metre. Not drastic, but I mention it because the water clarity usually declines disproportionately as the tide here recedes.
Even on calm days with low swell forecast and actual, the cliff base is sufficiently shallow for small reduction in depth to magnify those swells greatly. One must wait for gaps between swell sets to make a safe exit at low tide,.Forewarned is forearmed as the saying goes. But the location is worth the effort, with the fish numbers and possibly diversity having already increased since the cliffs became part of this Green Sanctuary Zone. Average size of the various Wrasse species and even the two main sweep species has definitely increased also.

Located during Carcinus monitoring in the subtidal part of the Port River, low tide to the left of the boat ramp. Found near the oyster reef restoration cage, either half buried or on the surface, but alive. All specimens have been forwarded to PIRSA and the museum for a final species ID included genetic analysis (we settled on T. literatus)