This is the MLSSA Newsletter, the monthly publication of the Marine Life Society Of South Australia Inc. Our Society is active in trying to protect our marine environment and this Newsletter usually contains articles about marine life and the marine environment.
Copyright - the contents of this Newsletter are copyright and may not be reproduced without prior permission of the Society.
Disclaimer - The opinions expressed by authors of material published in this Newsletter are not necessarily those of the Society.
You can join the Society or just subscribe to our Newsletter and Journal. Please write to the address below or E-mail MLSSA for a copy of our membership form.
Please send all general correspondence, subscriptions or Newsletter and Journal contributions to the above address.
Dive Reports
Many MLSSA members must be making independent dives or snorkels in between Society Dives. We would welcome reports of these for inclusion in the Newsletter. Please send them to the Editor, typewritten, on disk or via E-mail whenever they are available.
A Rare Visitor?
In this Newsletter David Muirhead describes his contact with an elusive creature. The photo is taken from David's contribution to our Photo Index.
KESAB Submission
You will also find details of our submission for the KESAB Awards. Although much of it will be familiar to Members it does pay to remind ourselves of the things we have done in the past and of the activities underway at present.
Philip Hall
This will be held at Hallett Cove R-12 School on Wednesday 18th February, starting at the usual time of 8pm and not at our usual meeting place. Although the School address is Gledsdale Road we will use the entrance from the parking bay in SANDISON ROAD. The map below should assist.
We will have a varied programme, including Tony Isaacson showing the First film Ever taken of Leafy Seadragons being born, in his school tanks, only a few weeks ago. We will be viewing other films and slides for the Photo Index if time permits.
Jim Thistleton of Western River, Kangaroo Island told me recently of a peculiar little fish he found while diving K.I.'s north coast, which by his description must have been a handfish.
Perusing the books, there are only two species recorded in S.A., the Australian Handfish and the Warty Handfish.
Handfishes are a small family of fishes, family Brachionicythidae, endemic to Australia's southern waters, notably Tasmania.
They are small, slow moving fishes with, as their name suggests, hand-like pectoral fins which they use for walking across the substrate.
They are closely related to Angler Fishes and appear to adapt well to aquaria.
They are very photogenic and I eagerly await an encounter with one of these frog-skinned denizens, which rarely exceed 10cm in length.
David Muirhead
The above article was published in the October 1997 edition of the MLSSA Newsletter. The following related item was published in The Advertiser on 22/1/98.
The spotted handfish, one of Australia's oddest and most endangered fish, may have been saved from extinction through a breeding program.
In a collaborative program with Tasmanian fisheries and environmental agencies, the CSIRO has bred 35 juveniles from two adult pairs at an aquaculture laboratory in Hobart.
CSIRO marine biologist Barry Bruce said they now had the techniques to develop a larger-scale breeding program and the next step was to develop a plan to guarantee the species' survival.
Philip Hall
In our first meeting for 1998 we had a lot of important issues to discuss including the production of logo stickers and T-shirts, our June long weekend trip to Edithburgh, the cleanup dive at Rapid Bay on 1st March and progress with our web page. Our KESAB Action Award plaque was tabled and Peter Gilbert raised the topic of aquarium problems that he was experiencing. Our publicity poster which is now in colour was shown. After a quick break we saw several very interesting short videos.
Steve Reynolds
I have now sighted this fish, also known as the Bluetail Leatherjacket, on at least two occasions off Glenelg.
The two occasions on which I have successfully photographed specimens were at the wrecks Known as "The Barge" (7/2/93) and "The Dredge (12/11/97) both in approximately 20 metres depth.
The species is listed in both "Sea Fishes of Southern Australia" (Hutchins and Swainston, 1986) and "The Fishes of Australia's South Coast (Gomman, Glover and Kuiter, 1994) as being "confined to southern Australia from Yorke Peninsula (S.A.) to Dongara (W.A.)" but clearly this is not the case.
Both the above specimens were solitary adult males, with the loosely mosaic pattern of large dark brown to blackish blotches on the sides and a diffuse background of closely packed small dark spots making them easy to distinguish from Gunn's Leatherjacket.
Gunn's Leatherjacket (Eubalichthys gunnii) is closely related to the Blue-tailed Leatherjacket and is also not common in S.A., but is more widely distributed within our state.
In 27 years of scuba diving in S.A. I have only sighted Gunn's Leatherjacket on perhaps five occasions, although the third mosaic-patterned leatherjacket found in S.A., the Mosaic Leatherjacket (Eubalichthys mosaicus, syn; Deepbodied or Dinnerplate Leatherjacket) is so common that it is unusual to dive "The Dredge" without seeing one, usually juveniles.
The adult Mosaic Leatherjacket with its less circular, more typically oval leatherjacket profile is seen much less often (although in my experience more commonly on "The Dredge" and "Barge" than other dive sites) presumably because it favours deeper reefs than the juveniles.
Despite the name, the Blue-Tailed Leatherjacket's impression in the underwater gloom is of a dark, reclusive fish, with the blue tail (reportedly present only in the male) not at all obvious.
Both the above fish were sheltering shyly under the wreck hull. Upon my approach they did not flee but retreated further under the hull, making photography difficult.
Given the four year interval between these sightings, it seems likely that the species is more than an occasional wanderer to these parts and one anticipates further records for the eastern seaboard of St Vincent's Gulf.
Article and Photo by - David Muirhead
Extract from a letter to MLSSA dated 7/1/98
"The last dive I did was a snorkel dive at Port Rickaby on the 12th December 1997. The actual site of the dive was south of the Port Rickaby jetty, on the reef. The visibility was reasonable but there was a lot of silt on the reef and it was quite void of large marine life. By this, I mean there were no large fish to be seen except for a poor old Dusky Morwong.
One exciting find was the number of Port Jackson Shark eggs that were seen by us. If they should all hatch then the area should have a very healthy population of Port Jackson sharks.
Other marine creatures sighted on this dive were as follows:
Ron Bellchambers
MESA has organised two Conferences for February, the first being a National one at Portsea in Victoria on February 13-16th. The other is a local one, for teachers who wish to introduce Marine Studies across the curriculum, on February 24th at Hallett Cove R-12 School.
Tony Isaacson is involved with both and will be using the MLSSA booklet on "Setting up Temperate Marine Aquaria" as part of his seminar at Portsea. MLSSA Member Peter Hoskin is also intending to be at this Portsea Conference.
Philip Hall
On December 7th we held our Christmas party picnic on the foreshore at Victor Harbor. Stories and Christmas cards were exchanged during the partaking of food and drinks. Once our lunch had settled in our stomachs we started our journey to Granite Island for a dive at the Screwpile Jetty. Only three of us dived but Carol took the young brigade snorkelling nearby. The weather was fine and sunny. The sea was mostly calm and the visibility under the jetty was fair for this location. I myself saw lots of small crayfish, starfish, gurnards (large & small) plus the odd Magpie Perch, Moonlighter, Globefish, Red Mullet, nudibranchs and a fairly large octopus. Some specimens were collected for the Star of the Sea school. Once everything was packed back into Phill's van we returned to the mainland where we enjoyed a meal at the Crown Hotel. It was starting to get a bit late in the day when we left Victor in convoy.
Steve Reynolds
In our last Newsletter we carried an article by Steve Reynolds on our award by KESAB in the "Community Environmental Action" category. Here is a summary of our application.
The Marine Life Society of South Australia Inc. was established in June 1976.
Interests
Our Society consists of members who are interested in studying marine life, keeping marine aquaria, scuba diving and marine life photography.
Aims
Our aims are to:-
We hold a General Meeting on the third Wednesday of every month except December. These take place at the Conservation Centre, 120 Wakefield Street, Adelaide. A guest speaker usually presents a talk of interest to members at these meetings.
Our committee hold a meeting on the first Wednesday of every month. All of our members are able to attend these committee meetings.
Dives
A monthly dive trip is generally held on the Sunday following our General Meetings.
Publications
We have been publishing a newsletter since July 1976. The MLSSA Newsletter is published every month except December.
Our annual journal is published each December instead. The MLSSA Journal has been published since 1979.
We have occasionally published information regarding marine aquariums , the most recent being a booklet titled "Setting up and maintaining a temperate marine aquarium".
Web Page
We have a web page on the Internet which features, amongst other things, our monthly newsletter. The address is:- http://www.mlssa.asn.au
Affiliations & Committees
We are affiliated with:-
Dragon Search is a community-based survey and monitoring program that is developing a data base on seadragon sightings in Australia.
Dragon Search aims to encourage the involvement of divers in marine conservation issues. It also aims to heighten public awareness of the need for habitat protection from pollution and other impacts
Dragon Search is coordinated by the Marine & Coastal Community Network in conjunction with:-
Reefwatch is a long-term community based reef monitoring program. It is a unique and exciting program developing community awareness and action for the protection of reef environments.
Reefwatch is coordinated by the Conservation Council of SA in conjunction with:-
The program is jointly funded by the Environment Protection Authority (SA) and Coastcare.
Coastal Issues Action Group
A sub-group of the Conservation Council of SA, CIAG focuses on marine matters and coastal issues on behalf of the Council.
Information & Library
We maintain a library of relevant information that is of interest to our members, affiliated organisations and related groups.
We exchange information with our affiliations and also with groups such as:-
A major project of our Society is the compilation of an index of slides of SA marine life. The slides can be viewed through the Internet at our web page. They have been used for presentations to (and by) different groups.
Annual activities that our Society participates in are:-
Publicity
Our publicity leaflet details much of the above information and also tells of past projects, displays and legislative inputs.
(We also enclosed a copy of our latest newsletter and journal, some Reefwatch and Dragon Search information, some certificates and photographs.)
The usual dive for the month of January was cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions. We thought about trying the Monday of the Long Weekend but few people were able to go.
The weather on the Tuesday was nearly perfect for snorkelling with light Northerly winds and a slight chop on the water. I decided to first explore the "Little Reef" just offshore but there was very little in the way of interesting marine life to be found.
Next I decided to use the new steps at the seaward end of the jetty and explore the main reef. I have not dived or snorkeled the main reef for more than eight years. The last time was when I accompanied a school group on an Aquatics lesson.
The visibility was good enough for me to clearly see the seabed from the surface at the end of the jetty. The steps are very good and are a credit to the SDF and their persistence in getting them built. Whilst I was snorkelling a small boat spent some time bumping against the bottom of the ladder whilst passengers boarded. In a rougher sea the steps would take quite a pounding.
Once I got to the reef I found the marine life to be fairly prolific. There were plenty of invertebrates. Several types of crabs were in abundance as were various urchins. I only saw one nudebranch however. Fish of every kind were cruising around showing no fear at all and even coming out of crevices to investigate the creature passing overhead. Several pairs of Old Wives were to be seen and individual Magpie Perches. The most numerous fish were some adult Richardsons Toadfish, either singly or in pairs. I saw many adult Scalyfin but only one brilliantly coloured juvenile came out to greet me. Leatherjackets were frequently observed, in all I saw six types including the Six-spined, Rough, Velvet and one Spiny-tail. Numerous small Noarlunga Trachinops, Blennies and other rock hugging fish were flitting about. Several schools of large fish were appearing and disappearing into the depths just at the extremities of my vision. If the anglers on the jetty could have seen what they were missing!
Eventually I made an easy exit from the water and squelched back along the jetty. (Perhaps the SDF should campaign for a moving pavement to be installed? - only joking.) All in all an extremely interesting snorkel. A shame the conditions were not right on the previous Sunday.
Philip Hall
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