Marino Sunset

Just after I left the water Friday.

Steve and the Stingray

It has been warm here in Adelaide this week. I took my first visit of the nearly summer to Marino on Wednesday. On Friday I returned and took my camera.

I spent a lazy hour after work floating around and then just before sunset I decided to get out.
As I approached the shallows and was just about to stand up, I came face to face with this fellow. He appeared silently in front of me, virtually from the shore and came cruising just over the tops of the rocks in the 30-40cm of water in the gaps. I fumbled for my camera and did a quick U turn as he passed within a couple of metres of me. I kicked out hard to catch up with him but he just lazed away from me. As I was doing this I was thinking of another Steve, another stingray and keeping an eye on the barb of this one. But there was no real danger. I couldn't get close enough to be a problem to this fish, no matter how much I was trying.

I got off about three shots before the distance became so great that there was no point in trying.

This picture is not so good, the water is quite mucky still, and visibility is not many metres. Also the light was poor as it was late in the day. Still, I will post this picture as it is the largest creature I have yet encountered at Marino.

Eagle Ray, Myliobatis australis

Marino Fish

This Little character is the Smooth Toadfish, Tetractenos glaber. There were a few of them near the sandy areas between the rocks and the sea grasses at Marino. When they were swimming they were very difficult to take pictures ofas they were so fast. This one (and another nearby) were half buried under the sand. The other toadfish was hiding deeper in the sand and left before I could take many pictures. This one was by a rock and was happy to stay there for a short time while I took some photos. In the end he didn't stay around for long and took off too.

The "Six spined" Leatherjacket. The spines are clearly visible just in front of the tail. Meuschenia freycineti.

Crabs at Marino Rocks.

Snorkelling at night again. No fish to be found but there were a few crabs hiding in the dark between the rocks.

A night amongst the rocks

Rough Bullseyes (Pempheris klunzingeri) once again at Marino Rocks but at night this time. Saw a Fidler Ray last Tuesday but the water was so mucky that I couldn't get a good picture. A new and interesting experience, snorkelling in the dark. This time I stuck to the rocky areas and where the water was only about 1.5m deep. Plenty of Bullseyes of various levels of maturity including a "school" of several dozen no more than 30mm long. They were concentrated at the bottom of a small hollow between the rocks. The very little ones are mostly transparent like the one to the right. The slightly pink one is about 80mm long and they grow to about 200mm when full grown.

Jimbles

Jimbles (Carybdea rastoni)

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For a change at Marino Rocks, snorkelling after work.
The Jimble belongs to the cubozoan order of jellyfish. Cubozoans have a box-shaped body with tentacles at each corner. They have painful stings and are related to the more dangerous Box Jellyfish found in the tropics.

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I was very wary trying to get these pictures as I was worried I would end up in the middle of a swarm of the creatures while I was concentrating on the camera. I think they didn't like the flash of the camera. They are usually found near the surface but as I was photographing them they often would move away or even head for the bottom.