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Tuesday - Turtle still mating offshore
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date: 2/12/2008
Author:Shay Young
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CONDITIONS
Weather: Sunny | Air Temp: 28°C | Wind: NE 10/15 knots | Water Temp: 26°C | Water Visibility: 20m | Sea State: calm
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
The morning was full of excitement with lucky guests dining on the Eastern deck treated to a loggerhead turtle moving her way up the beach around 8:30am. The loggerhead had decided that in front of the beachfront cafe was the place to start digging in order to lay her precious cargo; a turtle will usually only come up by night so this was unusual, however the same loggerhead came up the previous morning on the high tide. The loggerhead this time was unsuccessful with her laying as the place she chose was quite dry with the egg chamber dug and unfortunately filling in with dry sand; so off the loggerhead headed back to the ocean yet to come up with that precious cargo and successfully lay.
The glass bottom boat cruised over Second Reef today. Juvenile green sea turtles were in great numbers with guests gaining a change to swim right next to these amazing reptiles. The adult female green sea turtle that has been commonly sighted on Second Reef ever so distinct due to the barnacles on her back had 3 male green sea turtles chasing her today all trying their chance to mate.
The big eye trevally were once again all schooling on the reef with up to 300 of more in this giant ball; under all the trevally laid a cowtail ray ever so still on the ocean floor picking up on any potential food source vibrating through the sediment; the bioelectric receptors in rays allow for any electric field being sent through the sediment to be picked up.
The island discovery tour was the next to kick off with guests heading around the resort looking at the bird species. The tropic bird was of course a favourite with the new chick catching most of the attention; Toby as the bird is known has only been seen out from under mum for 2 days now making him the newest addition to our tropic bird family.
The guided reefwalk headed out to find all those interesting reef creatures; decorator urchins, blue linckia and the new Caledonian sea stars were all sighted hidden under the coral with the blue linckia intertwining itself between the knobbly coral.A sand dollar was also spotted, rarely seen out on the reef walks so this made for an exciting find however the most impressive of all the tiger cowrie wedged in a small coral crevice; called the tiger cowrie due to its beautiful orange, white and brown patterns these creatures are in fact mollusc and have a shell that is commonly sold in souvenir shops.
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Green Turtle swimming - Shay Young
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