The highlights this morning were seahorses and stingrays snorkelling off Beaumaris. This is beginning to become one of my favourite sites to swim. It’s not as pretty as Ricketts Point but for reasons I will explain in a subsequent post, I think it’s just as important.
There are still lots of seahorses around the jetty and also some dotted around the nearby reefs.
It as unfortunate to find an anchor discarded perilously close to a coral bommie. My thanks go to Shad and Brian from Mentone Surf Lifesaving who came by and we were able to hoist it onto their boat. I can’t understand why anyone would need (or want) to drop anchor on the reef itself. Then again, we are continuously battling to get enforcement for one fossil hunter who is mechanically blasting his way through the reef here, in order to find fossil teeth to sell online. It’s a disaster. It’s surprisingly hard to get the authorities to step in, or local residents and hobbiests to intervene, despite the impact it’s having on ecology and erosion.
Toward the end of my swim I passed by the fish-gutting outflow from the yacht club. It’s not very nice for swimmers but it attracts local pelicans, as well as this enormous stingray. I laid flat on the sand and it foraged, before coming over to check me out. I thought it was going to swim right over me! But instead, it deftly turned away and continued feeding. A beautiful encounter and nice way to finish the morning.
