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Friday - Many Green Turtle nests discovered
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date: 31/10/2008
Author:Shay Young
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CONDITIONS
Weather: Sunny | Air Temp: 26°C | Wind Speed / Direction: SE/E winds 10/15 knots | Water Temp: 24°C | Water Visibility: 30m | Sea State: Calm
ISLAND LIFE
Critter Encounters:
The day started with new turtle nests discovered at both the northern and the southern end of the runway, the tracks indicate that the nests belong to green turtles – it looks like it is going to be a fantastic green turtle year!
The western side was calm with barely a ripple making the snorkelling conditions exquisite. The glass bottom boats heading out from the lighthouse and we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of around 2 or 3 dolphins swimming about 50 metres away from the boat before heading off into deeper water. Turtles were also to be seen everywhere with a mating ‘stack’ of 1 female and around 7 males all competing for their turn to mate.
One manta ray was sighted from the boat swimming along the bottom with guests getting a great view as it glided continuously along under the boat.
The historical tour saw guest walking around the island looking at old remnants from the lighthouse keeper era. The fascination however were the old lighthouse keepers houses in particular house 2 the ‘haunted’ house. House 2 is known as the haunted house as Susannah our resident ghost’s old cottage used to be on the exact site the house now stands. Susannah died in 1907 when she mysteriously walked off into the ocean never to be seen again; some say she is still wandering the island wearing her best dress with some staff reputed to have seen Susannah!
The island discovery tour headed around the resort looking at the vegetation that has grown since the guano mining industry came to a close on the island in 1873. The only remaining original vegetation are the Pisonia trees, the interesting thing about Pisonia trees is they can never be truly aged as they do have the growth rings that most trees do.
Fish feeding saw sergeant majors dominating the feed with at least 50 showing up for a little extra food, sometimes becoming a little over anxious and biting the legs of bystanders in an effort to gain more food.
A late afternoon guided reefwalk meant that the sun started to head towards the horizon and the night time creatures started to emerge, holothuria hilla a species of sea cucumber was spotted ever so inconspicuously wedged between the coral crevices
As day faded with an amazing sunset on the western side of the island the stars started to overtake and light up the sky making for a lovely night of turtle trekking and star gazing.
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Sunset - Wayne Fox
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