Dive #3—Exploration
Jan 1st 2019
Just me in the water this morning. I swam out along the right/east shore of Sandy Bay, just curious to check the area out really, it’s not one of the locations suggested by Tim.
Well! There is plenty of life in the water along here, lots of small fish swimming amongst some patches of pretty healthy looking kelp growth, although plenty of sections of degraded kelp and kina barrens as well. There was kelp but not much kina in the first little bay I came to, the second bay had a rock and sandy seabed but no kina and very little kelp, pretty barren really. But in the third bay I found rocky reef in less than two metres at low tide (easy to snorkel on), semi-covered in kelp that was hanging in there but in quite bad shape, and heaps of kina i.e. five or more of them on average per square metre. Plus, as a bonus, on the sea side the area is sandy, so isolated from other reef areas, and on the shore side, there is still a really health kelp growth all over the rocky reef and shore. This site could be a winner. One to talk to Tim about!
Plus, I saw quite a bit of sealife, and I felt super comfortable in the water pretty much all of the time for this trip. Gone were my nerves and worrying from dive #1. I spent a lot of time just floating or gently swimming along the surface, looking down at the seafloor and the swoosh of the seaweed in the water swelling in and out along the rocks. Happy days.
