Our meeting will be held at the Conservation Centre, 120 Wakefield Street, Adelaide on Wednesday 18^th February, commencing at 7.30pm.

Our speaker will be Troy Jantzen who wrote an article for our 2003 Journal. This is a follow up talk with the title ‘Mating Behaviour of Southern Calamary".

and will give members the opportunity to ask any questions they may have regarding this creature and about diving with cuttles.

Monitoring Dive at Hallett Cove Reef

New Bluff Resident Discovered

Eight New Jellyfish Species for SA

BMLSS PICTURE GALLERY

CCSA Council’s December Meeting

2004 MLSSA Calendar

Advance Notice – MSSA Shell Show

Testing a Snorkelling Shark Shield

This month our writers are Steve Reynolds (+ the two pictures of the Hallett Cove dive), David Muirhead, Tony Flaherty and BMLSS contributor Richard Lord (+ the anemone picture).

We held our first monitoring dive at Hallett Cove Reef on Sunday 7^th December 2003. We had ‘adopted’ the reef through Reef Watch’s Adopt A Reef Program. Reef Watch decided to use the day to launch its program. The media and diving fraternity were all invited to attend. We were to meet at the southern entrance to the Hallett Cove Conservation Park at 9 am.

When my buddy Peter and I arrived at the spot there was just one diver there before us. His name was Gerry Butler. Whilst we were both chatting with Gerry, the Reef Watch organizers (James Brook and Ben Brayford) arrived. Other divers and MLSSA members followed them. There were a dozen divers altogether. After introductions all round, James and Ben gathered us together to outline what we were going to be doing as part of the reef monitoring. The reef that we were going to be monitoring was just off of the point in the conservation park. To be able to get ourselves and our gear close to the point, we needed to drive our cars into the conservation park. Reef Watch had organized a key for access to the park.

Just as we started to drive some of our cars into the park, Channel 10 turned up. Proceedings were held up while they interviewed Ben and James but eventually we were able to gear up for the dive. It was about 30°C and getting pretty warm. We were glad to finally get into the water, especially after scrambling over the slippery rocks on the shore. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Channel 10 were filming an interview with Ben on the shore with the divers entering the sea in the background. The whole scene was featured on Channel 10’s 5pm news, which was shown nationally.

It was sunny, the viz was good and the sea was mostly calm. We were to gather above the shallow reef for last minute instructions from Ben and James. We were to record the fish that we sighted along a 50m line. When we were ready to descend, James and Ben handed slates and lines to us. Other divers were:- Gerry Butler, Pauline McGregor, Anne Wilson, John Wood, Talitha (who comes to our meetings) and her friend Russell. Chris Hall was there with his camera, wandering around on his own recording everything on slide film and new MLSSA member Kevin Smith.

We all headed in pairs in different directions to do our line transects on the reef. Funny things fish. When I reached the shallow bottom (3-5m) there seemed to be fish everywhere. As Peter and I prepared our line, Chris came up to take my photograph. We laid our line out on the shallow reef top and swam its length looking for fish. They had all but disappeared. I managed to see a handful of fish in the distance. Having made our recording, we packed up our line and then explored the rest of the reef. We didn’t realize that we could have done more line surveys. As soon as we had packed up our line, the fish all came out again.

We caught up with many of the other divers on the edge of the reef where there seemed to be lots of fish around. I took some photos and then explored more of the surrounding reef. We managed to find a magnificent juvenile Scaly Fin and a minute Moonlighter. A large boat anchor with a length of chain, which had been abandoned on the seabed, caused some excitement until it was brought ashore by Ben and claimed by James.

  Diver recording information on a slate

When we were able to, we exited the park and parked our cars close to the nearby reserve for lunch. This was to be our Society’s Christmas picnic. Chris and Jean fired up the reserve’s barbecue to cook their lunch. We all chatted over lunch but it was soon time for me to leave. I wished everyone a merry Christmas before returning to my car with Peter.

Back at the car park we saw a huge Maori with spearfishing gear posing for a photo in front of a ‘No Spearfishing’ sign. His car was there right next to my car.

The Hallett Cove Reef is a nice spot which we will be revisiting every season to complete our monitoring.

All told I saw Trachinops, juvenile and female Blue-throat wrasses, male (and female?) Senator Fish, Moonlighters, Magpie Perch, Bullseyes and the juvenile Scaly Fin. Some divers claimed that they had seen a large Dusky Morwong.

The naming rights to a newly discovered marine creature were recently auctioned. A Myzostoma worm was recently discovered by Greg Rouse of the South Australian Museum, at The Bluff, Encounter Bay. This is only the second myzostome to be described from southern Australia. The other, Myzostoma australe, Greg also described this year.

It grows to 1 cm in diameter and is symbiotic, living only on a featherstar (crinoid). Myzostoma live as free roaming symbionts on their host featherstars and are often strikingly camouflaged. The featherstars are filter feeders that catch plankton from the water. The worms use their sucking mouths to dip into the food grooves (like troughs) of the crinoid and take some of the food before it gets to the crinoids mouth.

The host crinoid, Cenolia trichoptera, reaching up to 30 cm in diameter, is found around the southern coast of Australia. It is common in only 2 m. of water along the rocky area leading out to The Bluff. This will be the type locality of the new species of Myzostoma. Cenolia trichoptera, and hence its fellow-travelling little worm, can easily be found snorkelling and shown to anybody interested.

The successful bidder is yet to decide on a name, funds raised will be used for further marine research at the Museum.

Source: Dr Greg Rouse, SA Museum <rouse.greg@saugov.sa.gov.au>

Researchers have described eight new species of jellyfish collected on a research trip last year to Nuyts Archipelago, some 40 kilometres off the coast of Ceduna. Results of the expedition have recently been published ­ in the Journal of the Royal Society of South Australia. Four jellyfish were named after the research institution SARDI: Zanclea sardii; Zanclea ngeriana, named after the SARDI research vessel Ngerin; Amphinema cheshirei, named after SARDI Aquatic Sciences Chief Scientist, Professor Anthony Cheshire; and Hexaphilia scoresbyi, named after SARDI honorary research fellow Dr Scoresby Shepherd.

Source: Hon John Hill MP, News Release 10/12/2003, ‘New Jellyfish Species Discovered By SA Research Collaboration’

Tony Flaherty
South Australian Coordinator Marine & Coastal Community Network (SA)
c/o University of South Australia, Holbrooks Road, Underdale South Australia 5032
Phone 61 8 8302 6568 Fax 61 8 8302 6239 - mobile 0429 678 869
E-dress - <sa@mccn.org.au> web - <www.mccn.org.au>

To subscribe/unsubscribe to any of MCCN's free news services e.g. the national newsletter Waves, the monthly State/Territory Regional Ripples E-Bulletins use our online registration form at: http://www.mccn.org.au/shared/form.htm

Could all monies outstanding be paid to the Treasurer at the February General Meeting please. Please try to sell any unsold calendars soon.

http://www.glaucus.org.uk/

Each month, at least one special marine image is published from images sent to the BMLSS. These may be of the seashore, undersea world or any aspect of the marine natural world, but not restricted to life beneath the waves.

Sea Anemone
from La Vellette, Guernsey
© Richard Lord 2003 (Guernsey)

My identification is for a bright and unusually coloured Cereus pedunculatus, because this is the only small intertidal and shallow water sea anemone with the 200 tentacles of this specimen. Blue is unusual in British sea anemones but this colour is just possible in this species, although I have never seen any hint of the glorious blue colour before. The diameter of this anemone was 20 mm.

On Friday 19^th December Phill McPeake and I attended the Conservation Council of SA’s (CCSA) Council meeting to present a case for upgrading our Society’s membership from Associate Organisation to Member Organisation. The Conservation Council’s Board was late finishing their earlier meeting, so our Council meeting was delayed almost half an hour. Fraser Vickery is the CCSA’s current President and he chaired the Council meeting. Our membership application was early on the agenda and soon came up for discussion. Phill and I had been asked to say a few words on behalf of our Society. I thanked the meeting for inviting Phill and myself along to present a case for our Society to become a Member Organisation of the CCSA.

I explained how our history goes back some 30 years to when we started as a marine study group based at the SA Museum. So 25 years ago it was just an aquarium society whose members dived to collect specimens for their aquariums and for displays. By about 1980, however, our members were so environmentally aware that we wanted to be a Member of the CCSA. Our application to become an Associate Organisation was accepted in the early 1980s. By 1982 we wanted to portray a better conservation image and we changed our name to its present one. So we have now been the Marine Life Society of SA Inc. for over 21 years.

During this time we have involved ourselves in projects such as Dragon Search and Reef Watch. We have now been fortunate to be able to hold our monthly meetings at the Conservation Centre for almost 8 years and we thank the CCSA for that and many other kindnesses that we receive, including mail arrangements and use of their facilities and equipment.

We then told them about some of our activities. The subjects covered were our monthly newsletter, annual journal and yearly calendars of SA marine life. Examples of these items were passed around the table for the members to inspect. Our Photo Index of SA marine life was explained. They were informed that our Photo Index provides a supply of pictures for the Fisheries magazine "Southern Fisheries" when requested. We passed some laminated copies of publicity pictures made from Photo Index slides around. People were showing great interest in the various samples.

The creation of our JOTS (Jewels Of The Sea) kits with a Coastcare grant of $36,000 and how we put in $75,000 of ‘in-kind’ work was detailed. Our contributions to displays such as the Yankalilla Tourist Office display and our assistance to organisations such as the SA Museum and the SA Maritime Museum by collecting specimens for them was mentioned. On occasion we were contacted by government officers on important issues but we were also prepared to challenge the government where necessary.

The web site was mentioned and the fact that much of the information that was being given could be seen on it and that the material, articles and pictures on our web site is freely available for non-commercial use was explained. They thus understood that we are a conservation-minded organisation with an education emphasis.

I told them that we were currently investigating a pollution issue concerning Eight Mile Creek at Ewens Ponds and would seek their support later when we have a clearer understanding of the situation.

The fact that we had not thought any more about our long-standing Associate Organisation membership during the past 20-odd years was mainly because we didn’t actually recollect the original application details. We even thought that our Society really was a Member Organisation. When we understood the situation, we decided to take the next step by applying to become a Member Organisation and asked that they would give us their blessing by approving our application.

At this point Phill explained how special our local marine life is and how education of the general public is vital.

We must have explained everything pretty well because there were no questions from the meeting. We were applauded for our presentation and a motion to accept our Society as a Member Organisation was made. Voting was done by the showing (waving?) green cards in agreement. There was a sea of green cards being waved with a unanimous decision in our favour. Our Society was then duly welcomed as a Member Organisation. Mission accomplished! Success!

Phill and I stayed for the rest of the meeting. There were discussions about Council reps, Working Group chair-people and committees. The main business for the evening concerned a re-think about the Council’s decision to withdraw from the Yumbarra Ministerial Advisory Council (or Committee). At the end of all of the discussion over this, Phill and I agreed with the majority of the others present that each of our groups should have the opportunity to make a decision on the matter. The only other major topic for the evening was the Council’s policy on "Parks and Protected Areas". It seems that the amended draft of the policy was accepted. Clause 6 of the policy concerns Marine Areas. The clause says that "A system of marine protected areas (MPAs) is as important for conservation as terrestrial National Parks and Conservation Parks are for land-based conservation. Many of the same conservation principles apply to marine and terrestrial conservation and the Conservation Council supports MPAs which prioritise conservation and have strictly protected ("no-take") areas at their core. The Conservation Council approach is outlined in more detail in its marine and coastal policies." We should ensure that we read the Council’s marine and coastal policies.

Despite the late start, the meeting finished roughly on time and a lavish supper and Christmas drinks were then consumed by all present. We were all able to chat over the supper. Two or three people came to congratulate Phill and I on our presentation, including MLC Sandra Kanck, Leader of the SA Democrats. I left Phill still chatting with Fraser Vickery and Sandra Kanck. Chris Hall is our nominated (elected) CCSA Rep. He is now officially a CCSA Councillor and we probably should use that title for him rather than "Con. Council Rep.". We understand that the "Rep." title only applies to Associate Organisations. The date of the Council’s next meeting is to be advised later.

It is hoped that MLSSA will have a static display at the MSSA Shell Show on 20/21^st March 2004 at the Morphettville Function Centre.The show will be in the Phar Lap room, which is located on the second level .

A book, magazine and papers auction will be held on the Sunday.

We hope that MLSSA members and friends will visit the display (perhaps help with the settingup and dismantling - contact Philip Hall with offers of assistance) and the event itself.

Having used a scuba-model Shark Shield for many years, I recently had the privilege of testing the new snorkelling version which Mike Wescombe-Down of the Coastal Waters Dive Club kindly loaned me in readiness for the West Coast Blue Groper Survey (See next Newsletter?).

I never actually used it on that trip as I only snorkelled in ‘safe’ inshore areas such as gutters, channels and pools largely protected from the open sea, and when photographing on SCUBA in open water naturally I used my trusty SCUBA model.

So when my son Nick and I popped in off the rocks at Marino for a refreshing dip on Boxing Day at the invitation of new MLSSA member Warwick Noble I thought, ‘here’s my chance’.

Warwick and his partner Monika showed Nick, myself and two other mates of Warwick’s a nice little ledge which which is one of his Dicathais orbita study sites.

Although the viz was only average at about 4 metres, we saw plenty of life, including lots of mainly female blue swimmer crabs, red bait crabs, a wobbegong, a school of big spotted whiting as well as a school of salmon-trout, and many of the ‘usual’ inshore reef fish such as zebrafish, bullseyes, sweep, moonlighters, drummer, sixspine leatherjackets, smooth toadfish, magpie perch (for which I now prefer the term magpie morwong) and dusky morwongs.

Dolphins were also about but we didn’t sight them while we were in the water.

The shield was a breeze to use. So simple as to be virtually idiot-proof, it consists of a lightweight unit incorporating a rechargeable 2 hour battery, well protected in a sleek form-fitting neoprene pouch which can be quickly placed over either lower leg (I use my right leg) and is secured by broad velcro straps.

The flexible ‘tail’, incorporating both polarities of electrodes, on first inspection is awfully long, at about 2 metres, but only the extreme ends contain the electrodes, with the remainder of the black mesh tube (which looks like ‘open weave’ nylon rope) merely serving the purpose of maintaining a reasonable distance between the poles. This is necessary to ensure an adequate radius of protective electromagnetic field (approx. 2 metres) to deter ‘big bities’!

This ‘tail’ is permanently connected to the lower front aspect of the pouched unit and is simply allowed to trail along in the water behind the snorkeller. Although not essential, one can pass it through a little loop in the middle of one’s fin (I find the cable tie through a 5mm hole drilled in the fin is effective), to give extra confidence that it will always trail behind and below one’s fins rather than perhaps ‘washing’ back towards the user. This could feasibly happen (though unlikely, and I have not explained this) if one was stationary in the water, eg holding an anchor line or rock outcrop with one hand with tidal current or surge coming from behind.

As with all such devices, if one accidentally touches either electrode while the device is switched on you will get an unpleasant shock, which however carries very low risk of serious harm.

The sliding on-off switch is easy to feel and operate with one finger or thumb, but the green ‘on’ light, which also confirms adequate battery charge, is less easy to see as its window in the neoprene pouch is rather small. So once the unit is in place on one’s leg one needs to be a bit of a contortionist in the water to view the green light. But as the unit is intended to be turned on immediately upon entering the water and left on until one exits, this ‘one-off’ check is not a great imposition. Indeed, in normal use one checks the unit is functional before entering the water, by briefly turning it on to display the green light even before attaching it to ones leg.

The trailing ‘aerial’ despite its length making it seem high risk for entanglement amongst rocks and algae, gave me no trouble at all, even swimming around in white-water surge over rocky bottom in less than 1 metre depth during entry and exit. And this despite the fact that it has slight negative buoyancy so that it hangs limply down towards the seafloor once one gets to deeper water. (Both electrodes need to be submerged to provide a reliable deterrent field.)

The unit is so light and compact that I can honestly say that I was hardly aware I was wearing it, even when I deliberately ‘crawled’ along the bottom amongst seagrass and low reef to see if I could fault it. Also while doing this I only received a single weak jolt:- I guess it must have ‘shorted out’ for a split second when both electrodes simultaneously contacted the sand or rocks. This would happen rarely if at all during normal usage.

It was indeed nice to trial what is clearly a well designed and highly functional shark-deterrent device in such pleasant conditions. And only days later I eventually observed that the same device was routinely being hung off the back of the charter dive boat while Jenni and I dived the Hobart - very interesting!

[Conflict of interest - none declared]