A quick visit family gave us the chance to snorkel Portland’s Lighthouse Point. The wind was forecast to be westerly and the swell was quite low, which makes this a good site to swim. We chose low tide as there tends to be less surge. The site is quite fishy with Western Blue Groper, Magpie Perch and abundant Herring Cale. We had a swim past by a Southern Eagle Ray and a Short-tailed Nudibranch too. The highlight, however, was two juvenile Varied Catshark.
The catsharks were feeding in about 2m water among the seaweed and remaining hidden for most of the time. They were only small, we estimate about 40cm long. The much larger adults can grow to a metre, and presumably lay their eggs in the nearshore areas where these youngsters mature, before moving further offshore.
We then continued our swim by heading to the Lee Breakwater. This enormous rock pier extends over a hundred metres into Portland Harbour.
Here where we found Thornfish. Thornfish are quite special as they belong to a southern ocean group of fish. They can grow to about 30cm long. In Port Phillip Bay we usually see tiny ones but we found two today, both about 20cm in size.
There was also a very confiding Weedy Seadragon in very shallow water. Plus, some crayfish beneath the rocks.
By the way, it’s unseasonally warm this year. The water was over 21 degrees. Normally by this time of year the upwellings have started offshore and the temperature has dropped.
