Newsletter

The August General Meeting will be held at the Conservation Centre, 120 Wakefield Street on Wednesday 16th August and will commence at the usual time of 8.00pm. A map of the meeting place is below.

Our speaker will be Alex Gaut who will be pursuing the topic of:

"Introducing AQUAPLAN: Aquatic Animal Disease Emergency Management, with a focus on the pilchard epizootics of 1995 & 1998/9".

Welcome

2001 Calendars

Encounter With Dolphins At Moana

More About Moana

Identifying Seadragon Species

My First Dive

Trial Seahorse Exports Begin

Marine Wildlife News

For updates as to local and interstate information

Rapid Bay Jetty

Regional seadragon sightings

Code of Conduct for diving with dragons

WA Update

Leafy Seadragon Permit

We would like to extend a warm welcome to Jacquee Monk who joined us recently. She is a keen snorkeller and we hope to meet her on our dive trips and at our meetings.

If members have not already received some of these calendars to sell, or if you require some more then please contact Philip Hall on:

82704463 or by e-mail:

philip@cobweb.com.au

I live at Moana Beach and in the summer of 1998/9 I had the opportunity to spend some time swimming with wild dolphins near my home. I especially remember one of these occasions.

It was just before the end of the summer, one Saturday morning whilst we were up early having breakfast on our verandah. We watched three dolphins swim in close to shore. My mother and I decided to walk down to the sea and take a closer look at them. The dolphins were having so much fun that I decided that I would join them. So I took off my shoes and (dressed only in shorts and top) I swam out to meet them.

They were so gentle with me and we swam and played together for about 1½ hours. They would swim around me, jumping over my hands and rushing under my feet. When I practiced a few tricks, like tapping the water, that I had learnt at Seaworld whilst I was there doing work experience with the dolphins. They seemed to know and would swim around encircling me, almost like three protective mothers.

It wasn’t until I began to get tired that I realized what wonderful sensitive creatures they are because they must have sensed my tiredness and they began to head back to the shore leading the way. As soon as I could safely stand on the seabed they did a back flip, flapped the water and headed back out to sea. It was almost as if they knew I was now safe and that it was time for them to go.

Last year Mingyon learnt about plans to dredge at Moana and she was concerned about the effects of the dredging on marine life. She would hate to see anything happen to any marine life, particularly the dolphins at Moana. She wanted to put a stop to the sand dredging and she wrote to her local member regarding the matter.

I understand that dredging at Moana was to be done for sand replenishment on other beaches. We can only wonder if there is any direct effect on marine life by dredging. Some creatures may simply be obliterated or lose their homes.

I know that about two years ago sand dredging near Port Noarlunga had a terrible effect on the reef there. The reef became smothered in sediment that choked much of the marine life and killed lots of mussels. I understand that the dredging also affected the seagrass off of O’Sullivan Beach.

The Advertiser of 15/1/99 said that Port Noarlunga reef was significantly damaged after being swamped with silt late in 1997 as a result of a massive dredging operation at Port Stanvac. The reef slowly recovered but at the time many ‘short-term sponges’ disappeared leaving gaps on the reef where destructive organisms such as worms could settle.

There is a good chance that dolphins will stay away for a while during dredging operations and possibly for a short while longer whilst the area recovers somewhat.

A report in The Advertiser of 5/6/00 (World Environment Day) suggested that available sands were too fine to use for replenishment of beaches. The use of sand from the seabed at Port Stanvac cannot continue without causing severe environmental damage. The Onkaparinga Council is not in favour of sand from Moana being used. The council is said to be strongly opposed to investigations into Moana sands.

(Moana is a Maori word meaning ‘Blue Sea’. We don’t want to have to rename Moana to something like Cooeyana which is an Aboriginal name given to Streaky Bay where Matthew Flinders found the water in the bay to be "much discoloured in streaks".)

Despite the Leafy and Common Seadragons being quite different from each other there is often confusion over the two species. Their names alone cause enough confusion, especially since it seems that it is the Leafy Seadragon which is the most "common" in SA waters. Details written about sea dragons in some books only adds to the confusion. This article mainly attempts to explain the main differences between the two species so that divers can quickly identify a species of sea dragon.

It is assumed that readers already have some understanding of what a sea dragon looks like, i.e. stiff bodies which are greatly compressed, no scales or lateral line, a long snout, a long tail and lots of leaf-like appendages (dermal flaps) for camouflage.

Although the Weedy Seadragon is also known as the Common Seadragon throughout southern Australia, it appears to be the least common sea dragon in SA waters. For this reason I shall refer to it only as the Weedy Seadragon.

In South Australia most interest is cast upon the Leafy Seadragon because of its greater number of appendages. The Leafy has many branched leaf-like appendages over its whole body (head, trunk & tail).

The Weedy is said to reach a total length of at least 46cm, making it slightly larger than the Leafy which apparently reaches 43cm.

The Leafy’s colour is greenish to brownish yellow with variable markings. The markings on the body are often in the form of numerous, thin, dark-edged pale lines crossing sides. There are also black and white lines on the head, radiating from the eye.

The Weedy’s colour is usually reddish with yellow spots on the head and body, especially dorsally. There are bluish bars on the sides of the trunk and base of the tail. Colouration can vary considerably.

The Leafy’s body has several long sharp spines on it but there are only a few short spines on the body of a Weedy.

The Leafy has appendages arising in bunches, always considerably branched and the character of the appendages differ from those of the Weedy, being greatly branched and much more numerous. The Weedy has ovate appendages (dermal flaps) arising singly or in pairs, rarely branched and these appendages are purple, with a black border. The Weedy’s appendages are less numerous and differently shaped to the appendages of the Leafy Seadragon.

Think of a Weedy as being the "in-line" seadragon. The head of a Weedy is almost in line with its body whereas the head of a Leafy is directed at right angle to the body. The Weedy’s eyes are in line with its snout whereas the Leafy’s eyes are positioned above the snout.

It is difficult to identify a female Leafy unless it is obviously pregnant. They are usually pregnant in October and about this time the male’s ventral part of the tail becomes swollen, spongy, wrinkled and orange in colour in preparation for mating which takes place in early summer.

Membranous compartments (cups) form on the male’s tail when the eggs are deposited by the female. After mating the males can then be seen carrying and incubating the eggs (in November and December) inside exterior cup-like supports on the underside of the tail.

They may carry about 250 eggs of about 4mm diameter and 7mm total length (inside the cup) until they hatch. Newly hatched juveniles can then be seen in December and January.

According to Rudie Kuiter, female Weedies have a much deeper body than males. It is only the males which carry the eggs which are attached to the underside (anterior) of their tails.

The male Weedies may carry 200-300 eggs depending on the male’s size. The eggs will be 3-4mm diameter and 5-6mm in length, increasing slightly in size as they near hatching. The Weedy’s breeding season is in early summer.

Young Leafies are about 35mm in length at birth whereas young Weedies are about 25mm long. Both have a yolk sac at first and it disappears from the Leafies after two days.

Young Weedies have simple appendages, like the adults, but these are very leaf-like. They are more leaf-like than those of the young Leafy. Young Leafies have fairly simple appendages at first but these quickly develop to resemble the adults.

The young Leafies also grow in length quickly. After three days they reach 45mm (1¾"). At this stage they are semi-translucent. They reach 60mm (2½") after two weeks and start to develop colouration.

The young Weedies seem to have more colour at a smaller size. Young Weedies also seem to tend to school together more than young Leafies.

Having survived the ravages of an Irish winter and completed my compulsory five snorkels I was looking forward to my first dive. The dive club had arranged to go away for Easter and this was to be the weekend I took the big plunge. All was organised (probably not the correct term for our dive club) and directions given to Hook Head about the most SE point of Ireland.

Good Friday arrived and we set off south on a grey and rather overcast day. However we hadn’t travelled very far before the rain came down and the wind sprang up, a typical Irish Easter. We arrived at our destination, settled in and went to check out the dive site. Ten-foot waves were breaking over the headland so diving was cancelled unless you were a seal. Being Good Friday, Ireland everywhere was closed including all the pubs, so what to do? Brian and Pat who could sniff out a pint of Guinness at about ten miles found this place and managed to sneak the rest of us in the back door. There we sat drinking pints by a roaring fire while the more experienced divers kept us entertained with their diving exploits and heroics, trying to impress those with less or no experience. As more drink was taken so the adventures got bigger and bolder.

The next day dawned about as bright as the previous except there was the added bonus of a hangover. Diving was out of the question but I whinged and moaned so much that Sean agreed to take me. Diving the ‘Hook’ was impossible but Sean suggested a little fishing harbour nearby, so off we went. Sean and I kitted up and took to the water. I was attached to Sean with a ‘buddy line’ so he didn’t loose me in the gloom.

This dive will go down in the annals of history as the worst ever first dive. Like most novice divers I had my weight wrong (too light), there was about one metre of viz (I couldn’t see Sean at the end of the ‘buddy line’ 1.5 metres long) and about three to four metres depth. This torment lasted for about twenty minutes when Sean indicated he’d had enough. Poor bloke, so I had to buy him a few pints to placate him after his ordeal. He was cursing novices for months afterwards but I had got my first dive. The diving did get better.

Next day we headed back to Dublin and had a lovely drive through some beautiful countryside.

There is now a licensed seahorse farm in South Australia. It is called Seahorse Marine Services and is at Port Lincoln. David & Tracy Warland are running it. They also farm plankton to feed their seahorses. The first export shipment of seahorses is expected to be later this year.

Pot-bellied seahorses, which live off the South Australian coast, are the species being farmed and can grow to a length of 25cm.

There are said to be just the two seahorse farms in Australia at present. Apart from the South Australian one mentioned above, Seahorse Aquaculture at Beauty Point, Tasmania has also been raising seahorses. The developer of Seahorse Aquaculture, Mr Joff Love, is now developing a large aquaculture centre near Launceston, Tasmania. That business goes by the name Australian Marine Biotechnology.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/Homepage.html

Large Porbeagle Sharks have been spotted cruising by the south west Casquets bank north of Guernsey, Channel Islands, leisurely robbing long-lines set for Bass by biting the fish in half, with gapes of about 12 cm in the prey.

Two anglers on a charter boat spotted a Billfish jumping out of the sea between the islands of Guernsey and Herm (Channel Islands, English Channel). The fish was not positively identified but it was probably a Swordfish Xiphias gladius.

A pod of 12 White-beaked Dolphins, Lagenorhynchus albirostris, were seen off Hermaness (Unst) in the Shetland Islands in the morning and a further 8 were spotted in Lerwick Harbour.

A fishermen from Guernsey reported an ovigerous ("in berry") male Spiny Spider Crab, Maja squinado. The crab had the large chelipeds (claws) and other features that characterise the male of this crab. Asymmetrical specimens have been recorded before, some coloured blue.

Rohan Holt has discovered several of the the attractive sea anemone Amphianthus dohrnii around the Firth of Lorn area off the west coast of Scotland. This anemone is usually brown and in British waters is extremely rarely recorded on the brown Sea Fan Eunicella verrucosa. They were found between 25 and 40 metres of water, and deeper, on a dive.

On the east side of Eilean Ddubh Mor (just NW of Lunga, Firth of Lorn) we were finding one and up to six or seven Amphianthus on almost every white Sea Fan Swiftia pallida in sight, which has not been recorded before in British seas. Swiftia pallida was found on slightly silty, moderately tide-swept but wave-sheltered circalittoral bedrock.

Rohan Holt also discovered the very rare anemone Arachnanthus sarsi just off this island (Eilean Ddubh Mor) as well as the more common Fireworks Anemone Pachycerianthus multiplicatus. These anemones were found at depths of between 31 and 35 metres.

The deep water Northern Featherstar Leptometra celtica was also discovered in these shallow seas around the Firth of Lorn area (Garvellachs, Scarba, Jura etc).

Anyone connected to the web should subscribe to

MCCN (SA) for research and non-commercial use as a free community service from a range of web sources.

To be on the direct distribution list simply forward your e-dress to: mccnsa@senet.com.au

Other outcomes of the meeting included:

• Transport SA will waive the usual $10,000 storm damage liability by the future lessor of the jetty.
• The landing and steps permitting entry and exit from water level will be repaired providing access to the water for divers.
• Transport SA has no objection to volunteer work being carried out on the jetty, e.g. gear lock up cages can be built at the end of the jetty.

Although the above decisions have not been guaranteed in writing it is highly unlikely that any demolition of the jetty will take place. Minister for Environment and Heritage The Hon. Iain Evans has recently written to the Minister for Transport The Hon. Diana Laidlaw raising the issue of Rapid Bay Jetty and the resident leafy seadragon population, and offered the assistance of his Office in preserving the jetty.

Congratulations to all those involved and special thanks to Transport SA and the Department for Environment and Heritage for not only keeping the whole of Rapid Bay Jetty accessible to local and international divers but also in preserving the spectacular marine community that lives underneath it.

Dragon Search is especially interested in sightings from regional South Australia so that these regions are adequately represented by the Dragon Search Project. If you dive or visit any regional areas it would be greatly appreciated if you could submit to Dragon Search any sightings of seadragons you encountered. Alternatively if you have any friends or family living in regional areas you might like to let them know about Dragon Search and the importance of reporting any seadragon sightings. Regions that are currently under-represented in the Dragon Search database are the south-east, far west coast, Kangaroo Island and any offshore islands.

Dragon Search, in conjunction with the South Australian Dept. for Environment & Heritage and Primary Industries & Resources SA – Fisheries, is producing a SCUBA diving ‘Code of Conduct for the Observation of Seadragons in the Wild’. With the increased profile of seadragons, there is a concern that without a diving protocol, overly enthusiastic divers may have an adverse effect on particular seadragon populations. Seadragons at dive sites that have a high diver visitation rate are particularly susceptible. The Code of Conduct will be printed in the very near future and included in the next edition of The Dragon’s Lair. A copy will also be published on the Dragon Search website.

They’re everywhere, they’re everywhere! Seadragons are in the media a lot these days. It probably has something to do with the Chinese Year of the Dragon, but it is all part of the general rise in awareness of these denizens of the shallows. Dragon Search has had a direct influence on public awareness of seadragons, other syngnathids and marine conservation issues too! All part of a brilliant and insidious plan by the progenitors of Dragon Search to wake us up to the unique beauty and fragility of our Southern Australian coastline.

In the two years that Dragon Search (WA) has been operational more than 500 sightings have been received and entered to the database. Some are valuable historical sightings, most are recent sightings sent in by locals and travellers who have heard the call for records to build our knowledge on the range, distribution and habits of the mighty seadragons. (NO the mighty seadragon is not a new species, it’s just turn of phrase OK?)

In WA the leafy seadragon is totally protected under Fisheries WA legislation. Now a local action group is moving to have the weedy (common) seadragon afforded the same level of protection. The Cottesloe Marine Protection Group has established a petition and is negotiating with the Fisheries department to explore this possibility. Cottesloe is a central metropolitan beach in Perth blessed with long sandy beaches, areas of seagrass and extensive limestone reefs. The group aims to increase scientific research into human impacts in the area and to up the level of protection for the marine life and habitat there. They have a weedy seadragon for their emblem.

A recent report from a dive operator at Bremer Bay on the WA south coast gives some insight to the current levels of interest in seadragons both here and overseas.

"We have just had ‘Our WA’ Channel 7 here filming underwater with an emphasis on both species of seadragon. We have also recently had a team of Singaporean and New Zealand journalists here viewing the seadragons with a possibility of writing stories with photographs in their magazines and papers about the area and Dragons. A professional underwater photographer, Alex Steffe, has also recently been here and his photographs of the seadragons, with a story, will be appearing in ‘Asian Diver’ magazine in Feb. 2000."

Dragon Search in Western Australia has been highly successful, as it has in its state of origin - South Australia, and elsewhere. The real challenge for us now is to keep the project alive and keep adding to that database. This will probably mean looking for commercial sponsorship of the project, state by state, or nationally in the longer term. So if you’re loaded, philanthropic and looking for a worthwhile project ... look no further ... back the mighty seadragon.

Dragon Search (SA) was recently granted, under Section 59 of the Fisheries Act 1982, an exemption from provisions of Section 42 of the Act.

The exemption allows us to be in possession of two dried beachwashed leafy seadragons that were donated to us for educational purposes.

We just wanted to clarify the fact that they were dried leafies in case anyone saw the exemption notice in the South Australian Government Gazette from 17 March 2000 and (to) reassure them that we have no intention of removing seadragons from the wild.