Dawn snorkel at Ricketts Point on 4 Feb 2026
Light northerly winds for a couple of days made it perfect to get in this morning. The wind was due to pick up offshore later in the day, so we arrived at 7AM when it was quiet and flat calm.
I think for diversity, this is one of the fishiest swims I’ve ever done at Ricketts Point. The visibility wasn’t great so everything we saw was within about 5m of us. Here’s a list of the big stuff. Morwongs were notably very common and I had six together at one point.
- Zebra Fish (400)
- Blue-throated Wrasse (1)
- Purple Wrasse (1)
- Dusky Morwong 25
- Magpie Perch (3)
- Southern Angelfish (7)
- Moonlighter (1)
- Sea Sweep (7)
- Common Scalyfin (5)
- Snapper (200)
- Black Bream (50)
- Yelloweye Mullet (3)
- Mosaic Leatherjacket (1)
- Rough Leatherjacket (1)
- Yellow-striped Leatherjacket (1)
- Sixspine Leatherjacket (3)
- Horseshoe Leatherjacket (10)
Smallfin Clingfish
This morning I specifically went looking for clingfish. I couldn’t find any in the seagrass but did find a couple of Smallfin Clingfish on the golden kelp. You have to look very carefully, as they are only tiny. In the image below, you can see the slightly flushed cheek that’s indicative of this family. We’re lucky to have four (perhaps five) species in Ricketts Point but it takes a keen eye to spot one.
