Big critters everywhere!

Eastern crayfish

Blue groper

Ornate Wobbegong shark

Port Jackson Shark (Heterodontus portusjacksoni)

Crested Horn Shark (Heterodontus galeatus)

Stripey catfish

Nudibranch

Eastern crayfish

Blue Groper

A mixed weekend of weather didn’t impact the perfect conditions beneath the glassy surface of Cabbage Tree Bay. Visibility of some 15m is unusually clear for the reserve and heaps to see. The abundance of sharks still prevails with port Jackson and crested horn sharks patrolling reef and sand looking for partners. Ornate wobbegongs lurk (because that’s what sharks do according to the media) under rocky overhangs and watch the divers swim past.

A solitary eastern rock lobster scurried across the sand and under a rock ledge, quite possibly the only live one I have ever seen in the reserve. You often spot discarded shells but rarely live ones.

A couple of sick looking stripey catfish hung around the sand flats but there were a number of different nudibranch species around too.

Eastern Hulafish (Trachinops taeniatus), Blue Groper (Achoerodus viridis)

Eastern Hulafish (Trachinops taeniatus)

Eastern Blue Groper (Achoerodus viridis)- male

Eastern Blue Groper (Achoerodus viridis) – female

As the clean-up continues on the Northern Beaches, water temperatures have dropped to 18 degrees in the aquatic reserve and only the most committed divers are venturing into the murky waters. Very few of our tropical visitors can survive temperatures below 19 degrees and so as the variety of fish life wanes for the next 6 months we can look forward to seeing the locals.

Schools of small Eastern Hulafish populate the reefs around the bay in large numbers, and the large Blue groper will be patrolling their rocky territories too. The Blue Groper is actually the biggest representative of the Wrasse family to be found in Cabbage Tree Bay. Born as brown coloured females the largest can perform an amazing change of sex to the blue male form, often when the dominant male is displaced from its territory.