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Thursday - three mantas cruising on the surface
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date: 11/9/2008
Author:Shay Young
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CONDITIONS
Weather: Sunny | Air Temp: 24°C | Wind: NE 10/15 knots | Water Temp: 22°C | Water Visibility: 25m | Sea State: Calm
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
The ocean was calm and sparkling blue full of sea life; Whales were cruising on by with calves at their side. The glass bottom boat tour today saw guests lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time with some whales surfacing before continuing to head south, the action continued with three mantas cruising on the surface feeding on minute plankton and silver drummers dancing on the surface. Turtles were far and wide with a particularly big male loggerhead turtle sighted, these males are here showing their dominance and fighting in order to attract female mates.
The Reefwalk saw guests heading out to the lagoon reef flat to observe the marine life; this included a Aplysia Sea Hare, Blue Linckia & New Caledonia Seastars feeding on the substrate. The clams were quite obvious today with their colouration and designs all as unique as our own fingerprints; much like us there are no two humans with the same fingerprints …. No two clams with the same design! Clams also have eyespots all around their tissue enabling them to sense potential predators such as shrimps and small fish, causing them to retract the aductor muscle and close as tight as possible.
The tropic birds were active today with Sebastian even left alone to fend for himself for a short while, this gave time to get some good photos of our young chick but not for long with mum watching very closely from the sky. Damien and Zulu are still too young to be left alone; however both visible today under mums wing.
Fish feeding today saw lots of fish eager for a tasty snack. The fish are eating an aquaculture pellet which is a mixture of fish meal and algae; these fish have been fed since the resort opened except now they are on a very strict diet not like in the early days when they used to be fed old food scraps.
The diving today was spectacular! The strong current allowed for a long drift dive from Maori Wrasse to Sunset Bommies with everything from large mantas to a school of mackerel tuna. Marine Biologist Laura Smith said she could even hear the reticulated dascyllus singing (trilling) to each other! A shovelnose shark was sighted by dive instructor Adam and was about 2.3m long, resting on the sediment. An olive sea snake was encountered with bite marks around its neck ( possibly mating marks ), it was however very curious, slithering amongst the divers.
There are 370 species of sharks throughout the world with the majority of them not reaching anymore then 2m in length with 166 species of shark seen in Australia. So we’re pretty lucky to get to swim with that many incredible gentle sharks!
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Island Life - Wayne Fox
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