Free dive Saturday 26th of January 2013.

With the prevailing conditions there were only three spots in these conditions that would be just okay and are an easy drive to and this one is the most delicate of our any multi dive site area.

This is in relation to how this weather of a pending cyclone and possibly heavy rains that are about to hit may pan out.

The new life there has been wiped out two years in a row and the new life for this season was just starting to show that came along in as plankton from August to November.

They sense the reef sounds or accidentally find a good spot while still semi transparent and hide while carefully feeding as they grow.

Some show as very small, but are coloured juveniles from December and most appear from mid February to late March, then its full on if they have not been wiped out by excessive freshwater events.

If the rains come at levels from 100 mil to 200 mil in a 24 hours time span, this becomes to great a water volume for the tide push against, then its all over for firstly the invertibrates, they die firstly due to being more susceptible to bacterial attacks when salt levels drop.

It only takes 5 mins to 2 hours and they die no matter what, even if the salt level rises quickly after the initial two days that accounts for all the inverts chances of survival.

The fish are nearly the same, they can hang in there for a couple of hours, though brackish species and a few hardy species can hang in there for quite a long time with very low salt conditions and several weeks with low salt levels.

If these rains achieves greater then the cut off for most estuaries on average of 150 mills in 24 hours then we loose billions upon billions of all centropyge, chaetodontoplus,all pomacanthus angels and this was the seventh years cycle that brings the rarely massive numbers of conspicillatus angelfish in the south to north current at September.

This year that rare current went for over two weeks, I have only seen that length of time happen on three occasions in all these years.

All the banded shrimp that are in the thousands from low ocy numbers, feather sea stars in the millions as result of additional phytoplankton this season from tolerable high nutrient revels will all die.

The death rate will be staggering if that freshwater thresh hold is reached as it did in 2010 and 2011.

Fingers crossed it wont be as bad as further north.

This was our ordinary mornings swim.

Danny is in first as usual,lol.



Feather sea star in wonderful colours so far.




Sweet lip in big numbers this year.




A lot of new season ornatus painted crays.
These have a size associated with them so you can not take home undersized crays.



In hand.



Slightly larger one.




A couple of trilobatum nudibranch of the ceratosoma group need to get a room,lol.





A monster of the cerianthidae group of tube anemones.


With measurements.


A very common black holthurian of the massive sea cucumber family that many call a sea apple,it’s extended and having a feed.




Hetractus cripsa or maybe malu,they are to young yet to tell which one these are.
I would say the crispa being the most common in these waters.
Many of these seen at a twenty cent piece size, not big enough for an amphiprion yet, but if they survive the fresh, its only weeks until its big enough to attract one.




Large morays.
These are the backbone of these sort of sites.
With out them there would be an over abundance of octopus and they wipe out all lysmata and stenopus shrimp species in particular if in abundance.



















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