Aandtsociety Full Club Island Marines Collecting Trip

pkc

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This was the second main trip of the season and one of the last as this was in mid to late May.

The water is dropping in temp now so we won’t be having many snorkelling adventures until the temps start coming back up,but there will always be a few of us that keep hitting the water no matter how cold it gets.

This trip we had on May 17 acheived for most of the clubbies that are into collecting,a large smile on faces that will last for ages,for what we had was a perfect day.

The water was clear, calm and a nice temp, there was so much life around we were regularly asking each other does any one want this fish or whatever and whoever would swim over to the clubby that would say show me, sometimes it was a yes but mostly we moved on due the vast numbers of each species, we only got what was wanted on the day for our tanks and some for other clubbies that could not be there.

The new member Nick was very keen to have a go at collecting his own species and he had a ball, we got him a few lovely fish including a blue angelfish and some others.

The big surprise of the day was how fast Colin has gone from finding it hard to get anything to catching the ever elusive cleaner wrasse for us, he has already worked out one of the hardest fish to get, that’s youth of 26 for you, and he will be doing better than us in no time at all,but than again he did propose to his other half the other day so the ball and chain may be put on,maybe not with these two,she loves the water as much as him.

Colin was lucky,I had no one to watch or learn off in my early days, I have no doubt with his young lungs and being keen to watch and learn, he will be catching a fish or two for us far better than we can soon.

One of the high lights of the day would have to have been our new member Nick being a bit apprehensive of seeing a shark, which is fair enough to as there was an incident by a small shark, black in colour and I haven’t seen this colour type before. I won’t say what happened; it may scare some one unnecessarily.

In that area the more experienced stayed ahead of the others, just in case, only four of us went that far anyway, we didn’t stay there long, it can be a bit sharky, we only went there for the prime spot to get a tube worm or two anyway, a young person lost there life to a shark just out from there a while back, though the conditions we were in were as safe as possible for that spot,though it is full of beautiful things, you never trust the marine environment,the fish live there we don't.


Later on we found a few dog sharks, these are whaler sharks and except for inflicting a nasty bruise or a suck by there crusher plates, they are more or less harmless and very tasty.

I got Danny to pull on a particular smallish ones tail out of the many that were there and as i went down and I waited at the front of the rock formation and grabbed its head as it came out and caught it.

They are very strong so nick was called quickly to come and look at his friend, his saw this and you can imagine the reaction.

It was all good fun and though the shark would have made some lovely fillets, it was let go.

There were a couple of turtles around on the day and one had a little fishing line between it's shell and its neck, which wasn’t noticeable until it just sat on the bottom while it was videoed, the line was cut off as it was being videoed and off it went.

I think it apprecialed the help as it came back three times after that and came in once very, very close just casualy swimming around us and watching and seemed to not be scared of us at all,infact the complete opposite, they normally take off when you touch a flpper,but not this one,it was quite intent on being a part of what we were doing,shame we didn't have a jelly fish or something like that for it.

Firstly the very bad conditions that followed our very,very nice day out on the ocean snorkelling and sight seeing.

This is a brief video of a swimming reserve spot that is normally as smooth as a bath tub as it it is out of the line for most swells,at this time under attack by the intense pressure swells damaging our coastline,the life saving tower in the video is normally in the edge of a sand dune and the beach has been covered by the fallen trees that were up in the many parks along this area,some further up the beach were in the surf,for one of the best family beaches around,it is ruined.





We were so lucky to have had our trip when we did as the ocean around here will take weeks to recover its clarity,but it will take many years to fully recoupe its life forms and in some places it may never fully recover!


This was a popular park in flood,over the last 17 years of living here it has not flooded this badly and as we all know,all rivers,drains and creeks lead to the ocean and sadly huge coral areas are only several hundred yards away from here.

flooded-park.jpg



The pics and videos that follow are of the day, beginning with the trip out sunrise, finishing with the trip back sunset.
The sun wasn't quite up at this stage.
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This spot has the most interesting snorkelling and in the crack formations there are heaps of crays and a cave for the very experienced to swim in to.
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As you can see,even just after sunrise the water was around 10 to 15 metres vis.
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All around this spot is very nice snorklling and spearing,though the rocks can be a bit unsafe.
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To the right here there is a very nice secluded beach that never has a current in there.
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The first fish is a Pomacanthus semicirculatus,heaps around this year!Quite a few tube worms as well.
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The next is a cute little cole tang(a striatus).
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Shane wanted this pineapple fish,you have to snorkel a little deeper for them.
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There have been a few coral beauties this year,as with all the angels.
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This is one of the heaps of box and puffer fish seen and one or two cowfish.
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we were all very tired on the way back after some of us had been in the water for 7 hours chasing our new tank creatures and just cruising around having one of the best trips this season.
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Underwater trip videos






















Dannys dive photos .
1.The first one is a very common form of nudi for the area.
2.one of the purple sea urchins found in this area.
3.The little whaler dog shark we used to get Nick excited.
4.One of the many fang blennies in the area.
5.This type of urchin accounts for alot injured divers around here.
6.And of course,you wouldn't be in south east queensland and not see many lizardfish.

nudibranch-.jpg


pirple-urchin-.jpg


shark--.jpg


sabre-tooth-blennie-.jpg


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There is so much more to our trip it's rediculous,but there are only so many pics you can put on and there were heaps taken,but the picture that would have told the whole story of the day,would have been if we had a photo of the smiles on all of our faces,as we talked about our adventures on the trip back home!

If any one would like to check the regs for what we do these are the links in our water sports section!

Marine parks,they are all the same-
http://southeastqueenslanda.aforumfree.com...d-areas-t48.htm

Any where out side of a marine park-
http://southeastqueenslanda.aforumfree.com...ensland-t88.htm
 
amazing pictures!

thats fantastic, what an experience!
 
Don't forget,if any of your forum members are coming over on holiday,contact us and we will point you in the direction of some of our spots to enjoy the marine creatures here.

This trip was something very special as a lot of the close in ocean was wiped out just after the trip by the very heavy rains and massive seas.

we were so lucky.
 
Don't forget,if any of your forum members are coming over on holiday,contact us and we will point you in the direction of some of our spots to enjoy the marine creatures here.

This trip was something very special as a lot of the close in ocean was wiped out just after the trip by the very heavy rains and massive seas.

we were so lucky.
if it is cool fish you are after then you should go somewhere in the carribean, in the rocky areas is where sunset wrasse hide, they are rare to see but if you catch won it would e worth the wait! :good:
 

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