Do you know what it’s like just off Black Rock? Would you be surprised that it holds more species of red seaweeds than almost anywhere in the world? It’s a carpet of incredibly colourful, wonderfully diverse and vitally important habitat. Yesterday I did a 60-minute swim just off the Black Rock Surf Life Saving Club about 150m offshore to a depth of no more than 3m. While we tend to be attracted to Ricketts Point for its fish life, this area is beautifully diverse in terms of its habitat. Take a glimpse at this wonderful underwater world. Here is a short video where I’ve narrated a swim through Black Rock stunning reef.
Fish life
You’ll notice that there isn’t a lot of fish life in the video. That wasn’t the case in years past … we lost most of the resident reef fish in the 1950s from spearfishing. The almost total lack of any flathead, leatherjackets and so on, might be a call to action. These reef-building species would survive here but might need a helping hand to re-establish at a later date as they can’t come back on their own. The existing fishing pressure (targeting the largest reef fish) prohibit any form of natural recovery.
Sea squirts and seaweeds
There are extensive Pyura beds that on first glance look quite barren. These are the sea squirts and they cloak much of the seabed. In fact, a lot of what you see on reefs are living animals, not plants.
The algae (seaweed) includes the brown/yellow mid-canopy species that are really important for the smaller fish like weedfish. At night a lot of animals emerge from hiding among these and the reef comes alive. Some of these, like the mysterious bobtail squid, even live under the sand during the day.
We also have among the highest diversity of red seaweeds in the world, a few of which can be seen in this video.
Caulerpa, urchins and Green Coral
The green weeds are Caulerpa and there are at least six species in this area. These are poisonous to sea urchins and most other grazers. What does feed on them are the sea slugs (sapsuckers) that absorb their cells and use them to photosynthesise!
Sea urchins have a complex relationship with the reef. Urchins are important because the Green Coral in the videos is entirely dependent upon them. If you look in the video you can see the way urchins are distributed around the habitat and their importance. They graze the invisible algae that would otherwise choke the coral. Did you know, coral reef distribution has never even been mapped in the Bay?
I hope you enjoy watching this as a brief glimpse of what’s out there. It’s not perfect but you can immediately understand that we live on the edge of something remarkable.
How do you connect with the Bay? We invite you to join a workshops on Wednesday night.
Register here
At the Ecocentre St Kilda on:
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About the workshops
Restore the Bay is an independent project entirely conceived and run by, and for, the community’s benefit. We have assembled ourselves to facilitate outcomes and actions on behalf of the Bayside community.
The workshops will be strictly one hour long in duration and led by Anissa Lawrence. Anissa is internationally recognised for her experience in setting up community-led programs for sustainable development. You can read about Anissa’s experience and our team, here.
The workshops will be light and enjoyable. We find people who participate leave with a sense of greater confidence and a positive understanding of how we can make a difference, without creating more time and anxiety.
There will be no talkfest about problems. What we want to hear from you, is your knowledge about where the most important assets are, that relate to your experience on the Bay, and how this benefits your lifestyle and livelihood.
From this, we can then build the tool that will enable you to see your values represented in the Bay’s overall system. This is the first and most important step towards community-management of our coast and seas.
