31/5/2006 - Northern Outer
Had another awesome dive last weekend, this time at Northern Outer Reef. This is a local Adelaide reef, and it really isn't much more than blip on the sounder but it never ceases to amaze me how much life it always seems to attract. There is a bit of an ledge that runs along, but it rises no more than a half a metre off the sand. Another first for me - we found a Harlequin fish, which apparently is the temperate equivalent to a coral trout.
As a marine parasitologist, I was particularly interested to see the large isopods ("sea lice") living on its body. You can see one clearly above near the tail. Although they look pretty nasty, most of the time they don't really affect the fish's health or wellbeing.
There was also lots of nudibranchs as usual, and we were also lucky to find an ornate wobbegong towards the end of our dive. It cost us a few minutes of deco but worth it all the same!
Thanks again to GP for providing the photographic evidence for this dive!!!
In other news my brand spanking new semi-dry wetsuit arrived yesterday, so despite the drizzle and cold weather I am itching to get in and try it this weekend...hopefully the sea won't be too rough and will let us get out. It's blue and black in colour, not that I got to choose, but it will match my fins, gloves....if I'm not careful people will start to mistake me for a blue devil, cause apparently I always look angry underwater....I swear I'm not it's just the mask or something.....
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