Over Easter we took a break and headed down to the Bass Coast southeast of Melbourne, Australia. The weather was less than glorious over the weekend. But it cleared up allowing us to snorkel between Cape Paterson and Inverloch. Our hopes of clear water were a bit dashed due to huge tides (we only swum on the low) but this gave us another opportunity. On the last day, we relocated to the Mornington Peninsula back-beaches. We’d been investigating how to see Melbourne’s sea spiders. There is one particularly beautiful species that inhabits the rock pools. During the week we also looked for scorpions using a UV torch. Here’s a few highlights of the week proving again that you don’t have to go far from home to see some amazing creatures!
Fossils and dinosaur dreaming
One always dreams of finding a dinosaur fossil but in reality plant fossils are more likely … and abundant. Like this one on rocks fallen out of the cliff side at ‘The Caves’, which is part of Flat Rocks. The rocks here have been dated to about 126 million years.
Glow-in-the-dark scorpions
I was very excited when I found this as it fulfilled a childhood ambition. I only recently acquired a UV torch and the night was warm enough for animals to be active. A few bits of fungi (otherwise invisible) glowed on the ground. We could see a faint glow from some spiders and moths too. But the scorpion stood out the strongest.
Scorpions have a chemical in their outer skin that glows under ultraviolet (UV) light. The energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More from the UV light excites chemicals that then emit a glow that we can see. Other animals can see UV … which means the scorpions must stand out as UV is also emitted by the sun and moon. No-one knows why they glow.
Sea slugs at Flat Rocks
The visibility at Flat Rocks was pretty poor. It can be an epic snorkel site but we got in near the boat ramp and headed out between the rock crevices and looked in shallow water. The first sea slug pictured in blue is a sap-sucker. It sucks in plant cells and uses them to photosynthesise. I wrote about them recently here. The last one is a short-tailed nudibranch and when we see them in the bay, they are usually more yellow in colour.
Stingrays at Cape Paterson
It was quite nice swimming in front of the Cape Paterson boat ramp. Despite the low swell and moderate northerly wind, the waves were still quite big behind the rocks. A few large stingrays had gathered close in though and were fun to see.
Pink spaghetti sea hares at Blairgowrie Pier
Just the night before we’d been talking about the spaghetti-like egg coils of sea hares. Then we come across a pair mating at Blairgowrie Pier. Or is it three? Being molluscs, they are haemaphrodite (both make and female). Apparently it’s not unusual for three to mate together forming a chain. One end male, one end female and in the middle, both male and female. The egg coils can be bright pink, reds, oranges and yellow – all the colours of the rainbow one might say!
Blairgowrie Pier is a lovely spot to snorkel. The weather was a bit windy from the east so we stuck behind the breakwater where it was calm. Earlier this week spider crabs had begun to congregate and there were still a few around. The major aggregations usually happen around full moon though, so possibly in the next few weeks.
Evan’s Sea Spider
I’ve always wanted to see a sea spider and imagined they would be deep sea animals. We are indebted to Nick Shaw who has been reporting them for some time in the rock pool at London Bridge. We headed there and within a few minutes had found one. Despite that, they aren’t easy to find … we searched for another few hours and didn’t see another (or could relocate the first one). Evan’s Sea Spider is also one of the most amazing looking.
This rock pool is incredible. It’s like swimming in the open ocean but completely still. It’s a great place to practice macro-photography. Just after low tide the water was crystal clear and packed full of fish.
Though for note it can also be very dangerous. The tides this week were exceptionally low (0.3m) and the swell was only about 1.3m. We had easily two hours either side of the tide when the pool was completely safe.
Some more sea slugs from the rock pool. First two images by Carla Bond.
If you want to know more about how to see Melbourne’s sea spiders, glowing scorpions and other creatures, join my mailing list.
