Seaway dive, 22 degrees, 3 metres visibility, annoying boat traffic, lots of fishermen.
Strong northerly winds were blowing 18 knots, the tide came in at about 3metres per second, that is ripping. So, I changed my plans and started my dive a bit later and from the beach. I covered a few hundred metres - and what a coincidence exited at the midsection entrance (normally not used as an exit because it is hard to find). Dive time was a bit over two hours and I was freezing cold in my 7mm wetsuit.
Any dive is a good dive. But this one was certainly one of the poorer dives. Only 6 branch species found. This is very surprising for this time of the year. The plants seem to die off and be covered in sand and other growth. It is basically brown in brown again. Every passing and speeding boat causes a black out under water. The visibility reduces from 3 metres to half a metre. It seems that all commercial water tank trucks use the Seaway to fill or unload their water. Would be interesting to study the effect on the branch population. Probably small quantities with minor impacts but still...
There is not much to say about the dive. A toad fish fell in love with me (or thought I was lunch) because it followed a long stretch along the way.
Here are the stats:
Bullina lineata
12
3
Seaway SW Wall
2
3
22
Goniobranchus albonares
13
9
Seaway SW Wall
3
3
22
Goniobranchus aureopurpureus
22
9
Seaway SW Wall
1
3
22
Goniobranchus daphne
18
1
Seaway SW Wall
3
3
22
Goniodoridella sp. 1
10
10
Seaway SW Wall
2
3
22
Hypselodoris obscura
45
4
Seaway SW Wall
4
3
22
(Name, size, numbers, site, depth, visibility, water temperature)
So, the very good news is that Goniobranchus aureopurpureus is established at the moment. What a beautiful branch.
A few Hypselodoris were cruising around too. One was down in the deep (4 metre) sand and had a parasite.
Bullina lineata
Anemone
Goniobranchus daphne
The 'Branch of the Seaway', Goniodoridella sp. 1 is looking healthy, is active and mating.
A sponge
Goniobranchus albonares were the best visible branchs, quite a few around too. Here an interesting detail of their colouration. Never noticed that the orange margin consists of dots (Photo is a crop).
Sometimes there are obstacles in your way when you are trying to photograph a branch from the right angle: check them out! The first branch of the night (Hydatina physis) was heading straight into the current towards one of the bad players in this game: a stone fish.
This post was edited retrospectively and species names were updated based on the ID help from Richard Willan.
Only 14 species found. But four of them are new species for my Gold Coast Seaway collection. They are species 136 to 139 and I probably could count the Chelidonura as a new species too if I wanted to because the colouration was quite unique, the 'fulvipunctata' just a best guess. Let me introduce the new members of my family (and probably also never documented residents of Australia):
I am proud having found a new Genus for my collection. Kaloplocamus ramosus is quite an amazing find. I was not sure that it would be a branch at all when I found it. But it is definitely a Kaloplocamus and I could not find any match for the species. This could be due to the critter being a juvenile. But that's what I hear all the time.
Dolabella auricularia is a stunning find too. I rarely, well, never find sea slugs of that size. I have developed eyes for small branchs, carry a camera with various wet lenses that allow magnification. I have looked for ages to find an ID match for this sea hare. I found one picture that shows the pustulose or spiculose body in Yonow, Sea Slugs of the Red Sea, p. 101.
Trinchesia sp. 4 could be a new species, one never documented by major players in branching (Gosliner, Behrens, Coleman, Nudipixel, Sea Slug Forum, Philippine Sea Slugs, Cobb). Unfortunately, the specimen was lacking the right frontal lobe.
Platydoris ellioti is an Indopacific not an Australian species. What a silly distinction! Anyhow, it could be a different, a new species again but I am sure that it is a Platydoris. And what a big beauty this species is, well covered. The photography brings out amazing details of the mating pair.
What a night! Goniobranchus aureopurpureus and Madrella sanguinea are not found every day either. Water temperature was 23 degrees, little current and 5 metres visibility. The bait fish were just thick like a black cloud that massaged all my body parts around my torch. I took a video of a flying Aplysia - most probably Aplysia sydneyensis. And then another one of a stunning creature. You can clearly see it eating but don't recognise the critter. It must be a decorator crab of some sort, just amazing camouflage. Not sure if I can upload videos here but would otherwise bother to edit the sequences. There was the most massive Conger eel I have ever seen. It is living in a big cave. Lots of big flatheads, one so big, about 1.5 metres, that it didn't even bother to shoot away when I steered towards it. It just looked and watched me go around it. A parrot fish had built a cocoon out in the open, not really tucked under and between rocks: really strange behaviour.
Often I have wish lists what branchs I want to see. I still miss the Ceratosoma tenue that used to be abundant. Surprisingly, I didn't find Dendrodoris nigra and Dendrodoris fumata. Maybe it was too early in the night. I wanted to find some Philinopsis too. And certainly, I was glad to see some sea pens and hope to see a sea pen feeding branch at the Seaway one day. Spurilla, Dermatobranchus, Arminia and Hexabranchus are on my wish list too. And I know that Syphonota geographica must still be around but is hiding from me.
The vegetation is still diverse and abundant. But it is difficult to spot the branchs because of the movement of the plants. During the day, boat wash is annoying, at night the thick cloud of bait fish.
Hydatina physis
Derriere of Dolabella auricularia
Like a flower
Dolabella auricularia
Chlidonura fulvipunctata (or sp.)
Madrella ferruginosa
Atys
Hydatina physis just leaving its burrow
When you have got a beautiful branch plus a small fish in the picture, you can be certain that the camera is slow to focus.
Goniobranchus aureopurpureus
Only realised now: this genus is a total mess. Different authors describe this genus in a little coherent way. I call it Plocamopherus imperialis for the moment
