Sunday, May 9, 2010

ONE MILE GUTTERS/ BENNETT’S HEAD BOMBIE – 26th April 2010


Left: Loggerhead Turtle, Caretta caretta. Photo: Troy Fardell

Above right: Pineapple Fish, Cleidopus gloriamaris. Photo: Troy Fardell


It was the Anzac Day public holiday and nine members of The Great Lakes Underwater Group met up at the Forster marina to load up the boat from Action Divers. Typical of long weekends, the weather was inclement with brisk southerly winds whipping up the seas. The original plan to dive Seal Rocks was revised and we opted for local dives close to the shore.

Isabelle and Peter undertook Reef Life Surveys whilst the other members recorded fish life on slates and digital cameras. The water temperature was still pleasantly warm and due to the southerly the visibility was good. As soon as the divers hit the water at One Mile Gutters they were surrounded by an enormous school of yellow tail scad. Thousands of fish moved as one, circling the divers and often blocking their line of sight. The depth was only 12 metres enabling rays of sunlight to pierce the water and shine on the fish and create brilliant flashes of silver as they darted in the shallow water.

Also recorded were herring cale, bronze-coloured old wives, Moorish idols, turtles, one-spot pullers, girdled parmas, crimson banded wrasse, Maori wrasse, boxfish, moray eels, nudibranches, wobbegongs, luderick, mado, toadfish, pipefish, goatfish, stripeys, flounder, red morwong, neon damsel, pineapple fish and Guenther's butterfly fish. At the entrance to the cave at Bennett’s Head bombie was a large blue grouper waiting for a handout of urchins. Only one item of debris, an electrical insulator, was found. A pod of dolphins followed the boat through the bar.

HEATHER ARMOUR