Our June Meeting will be held at the Conservation Centre, 120 Wakefield Street, Adelaide on Wednesday 16^th June commencing at 7.30pm.

Our speaker will be Heidi Bartram, Australia’s Youth Ambassador in Fisheries, who is now back home in South Australia. Heidi has been working in Vanuatu for a year. She had been our guest speaker in August 2002 when she spoke about her work in the Environment Team for the National Youth Roundtable, a Commonwealth Youth Initiative. Heidi will bring us all up to date.

2004 Annual General Meeting results

Fish Parasites and Fish Farm Fights

F-Words Flow Freely in Fish Farm Fight

The Woes Of An Underwater Photographer

Fun Time – Wordfind

MLSSA Letter In Messenger Paper

Email from Robert Browne

Tylodinid Musings

This month our authors are Philip Hall, Chris Hall, Steve Reynolds, Robert Browne and David Muirhead.

These will be published in our August Newsletter.

Ian Whittington from the SA Museum and the School of Earth and Environmental Science at Adelaide University was our first guest speaker of the evening at our October 2003 General Meeting. Ian’s topic was titled "Plenty of fish in the sea: Oh! But what about their parasites!?". Ian came with a few of his friends and colleagues. He also came armed with a PowerPoint projector to help him with his presentation about fish parasites. And what a great presentation it was!

British marine scientist Don Staniford was the second speaker He is a renowned environmental activist and was on a "downunder" tour to raise awareness about the environmental aspects of aquaculture. Don was awarded the Andrew Lees Memorial Award at the 2002 British Environmental Media Awards for his work in exposing illegal chemical use in Scottish salmon farms. He is also the author of several publications including ‘The Five Fundamental Flaws of Sea Cage Fish Farming’.

Just like the title of his book, when Don gave his talk, it seemed like every second or third word began with an ‘f’. There were words such as fish, finfish, fish farms, factory fish farming and the final frontier. And gems such as "Kingfish farming is fundamentally flawed". Then there were beauties such as "Of the five fundamental flaws, the first four flaws . . ." and "The fifth and final fatal flaw". But this is only a little fun thing from me. Don’s talk went better than I imagined it would. Thanks Ian and Don for being our October guest speakers.

I’ve been an underwater photographer since 1991 when on a trip back to Ireland to visit relatives I bought an underwater camera, duty free. On returning to Australia with winter rapidly approaching I was keen to get into the water and try out my new camera.

I booked a dive with Glenelg Scuba and armed with my new camera was off to Broken Bottom. As any underwater photographer will tell you it takes a little while to get used to taking pictures under water. Most of your time is taken up trying to frame your subject, especially as most fish or marine creatures don’t want to pose. Anyway my first few attempts were OK except for some backscatter. That was due mainly to the fact I couldn’t position my strobe, as I would’ve liked as well as needing a 20mm wide-angle lens recommended for photography in South Australian waters.

It wasn’t until about my fourth or fifth dive that I noticed the led indicating TTL conformation in the viewfinder was not working. I rang James Place Cameras and they requested that I bring in the camera. They carried out a quick appraisal and informed me that it had to be sent to Sydney for repair. Thirteen weeks later I received my camera back, the first of many trials and tribulations concerning underwater camera equipment and me.

For about another six months all was OK until I was diving off Kangaroo Island and I went to connect my strobe (flash) to my camera and the connector came apart in my hands. Fortunately it was still under warranty as it had been extended because of the thirteen weeks it had been away in Sydney.

Off to James Place Cameras again with the strobe this time, so it could be sent off to Sydney for repair. A few days later I received a telephone call from Sea and Sea informing me that I had damaged the connector on the sync cord and that if I wanted it repaired I had to pay for it. After much discussion and arguing I explained to them that they were not there at the time and could only assume I broke the connector and that I could provide witnesses to the fact that it came apart in my hand. They agreed to repair it free of charge. Four weeks later I had my strobe back.

Now thinking nothing else could go wrong I bought a second hand 20mm wide-angle lens and after a few trials I switched from film to slides, and the results were a marked improvement.

I was now getting reasonable results considering the equipment I was using and the conditions associated with diving mainly around local dive sites. A friend and dive buddy then asked if he could borrow my camera as he was going to Aldinga. As he had used it a couple of times while we were diving together I agreed to his request. Unfortunately for me it was the wrong decision as while snorkelling off Aldinga Reef he lost my 20mm wide-angle lens.

He promised to buy me a new lens which would have been OK if it hadn’t been for his in-laws coming out to Australia from England. He got them to buy it duty free over there but instead getting a 20mm wide-angle lens they got a 15mm wide-angle lens.

The 15mm wide-angle lens is a much better lens so thinking I had done well for myself I accepted it only to find out much later and to my cost that it wasn’t entirely compatible with my system.

Having accepted this lens I headed back into the water hoping to resume where I had left off, however it wasn’t to be quite so simple.

Having taken a number of rolls of film (slides) I noticed they weren’t quite the same as when using the 20mm wide-angle lens, they were dark around the edges. I consulted with a few knowledgeable underwater photographers and their prognosis was that the 15mm wide-angle lens was too wide for the strobe beam therefore I wasn’t getting full illumination in the frame. My dilemma now was whether to buy a new strobe @ $2,000 or a 20mm wide-angle lens @ $600. I decided to go for the strobe, as it would give me more options.

As luck would happen or not depending on your perverse sense of humour I was knocked off my bicycle and received a small insurance payment for pain and suffering. This, plus the fact that we were returning to Ireland (duty free) covered the cost of a new strobe.

When I returned to Adelaide some six months later I still hadn’t used my new strobe and it wasn’t for at least another 12 months after that that I started diving again. However, in between time, I had to return to Ireland for family matters and bought a new 20mm wide-angle lens duty free.

I then met David Muirhead on a dive to Leather Jacket Alley and while on the boat he rekindled my interest in underwater photography as well as telling me about MLSSA.

Now armed with a new strobe and 20mm wide-angle lens I started underwater photography again. It was good to be back in the water again and encouraged by MLSSA to take underwater photographs my photography began to improve.

Everything was going well until a dive with David on Seacliff Reef when my camera packed up. This time I went into Glenelg Scuba and they arranged to send it to Sydney for repair. Six weeks later it returned having had the electronics circuitry replaced at quite an expense.

A month or so later I was doing some macro photography and my original strobe packed up. The sync cord again. I don’t think they ever did it properly as it had hardly been used since the last time although a number of years had passed. More expense.

This didn’t really hamper me as I could use my other strobe and I was more interested in doing wide-angle photography anyway.

As I sat in envy of the photos David showed at MLSSA meetings I decided that no matter how proficient I became with my camera system I could not improve my photography.

All these woes had taken their toll.

The decision was made.

Can you find all 30 listed words in the square? The words may run in any direction, in a straight line.

The Guardian Messenger of 11^th February 2004 featured a letter from our Society as follows: -

Members of the Marine Life Society of SA are concerned to read of the recent near death of a lady’s dog after it ate a toadfish found on a local beach ("Poisonous fish warning", Guardian Messenger, December 22).

We believe that part of the problem is due to children playing with toadfish which are highly toxic.

Live toadfish will swell up when threatened. It may be that children find some live ones and enjoy making them swell up.

We understand that toadfish are often thrown around by children on the beach.

It is not surprising that dogs come along and try to eat the toadfish, resulting in illness or death.

It is advisable then that children leave the toadfish alone.

It may even be possible that a child could become ill through handling a damaged toadfish.

At least a little knowledge about toadfish may help to save a child or a dog’s life.

Steve Reynolds

Secretary Marine Life Society of SA

I really miss the diving, the fish surveys, and discovering new species that I could have done in SA. Fortunately it seem that some others are continuing great work in surveying the inshore fish of SA. Their emails and the previous work show that things appear to be worse in terms of knowledge and conservation, and better in terms of potential than was first thought. Of gobies only, there have now been four novel species discovered just in the Pt River by Mike Hammer of Native Fish Australia (SA). Also there appear to be several others as reported by MLSSA members particularly Kevin Smith and others. These discoveries have to be considered in the light of only eight previous goby species in SA.

The new Gulf Pipefish Stigmatopora nasospatulata has not only been shown to be in limited inshore habitats, but also to be very distinct from other Stigmatopora species, perhaps even in its own genera. Also Kevin Smith who you know as a MLSSA member appears a nascent expert in pipefish and other inshore fish. He has already done much valuable work on S.nasopatualta and seems to have located other potentially new species. The marine conservation community is fortunate to have him onboard and he and his friends should be given every assistance in their quest.

The best thing I can do to help the project is to concentrate on the web page which I will have up soon. With respect to MLSSA’s responsibility for an accurate and clear website which is accessible to the public, I am designing a page for MLSSA which will embody the clear information of our current knowledge of SA inshore fish, their habitats and conservation. For more detailed scientific, uncertain, and general ecological information, I believe that a separate website is appropriate which I will set up and can be linked to the MLSSA website. Thank you for your patience.

The current rate of the discovery of inshore fish in SA shows that MLSSA and the Scuba Divers Federation were correct in approving an ongoing inshore fish survey. How can any conservation assessments be made of inshore fish, appropriate species survival plans, or changes to or implementation of legislation be made with such a poor knowledge of species. It is critical that MLSSA and the other fish and marine conservation societies in SA maintain a climate that encourages the further proper surveys of inshore marine habitats for fish and other species.

This is particularly in respect to the active discouragement by any unhelpful government regulations that impede discovery and create unnecessary cost and paperwork. One such type of regulation is the blanket protection of fish genera. For instance, what would be gained by giving the gobies blanket protection no matter what the conservation status of one or two species? Far better would be the encouragement of accurate and unbiased surveys by providing targeted funds to encourage surveys of the group, and after an adequate knowledge is gained, the use of accurate information to give specific protection of species in need.

Memphis Zoo and Aquarium USA

Tylodina corticalis is one of six known species of tylodinid sea slugs worldwide (Edgar, Australian Marine Life - the plants and animals of Temperate Waters - Revised Edition, 2000) but is the only species recorded from Australia.

Other opistHobranch families more often seen by divers include the nudibranchs, seahares and side-gilled slugs.

Tylodinid sea slugs have A flattened limpet-like shell into which the animal can just withdraw.

Although T. corticalis is quite easy to identify, there is potential for confusion with some other mollusc families such as keyhole limpets, especially given their comparably small size (less than 100mm) and shared preference for shallow rocky reef habitat.

I am prompted to write about T. corticalis because I encountered a small (approx. 2cm) specimen in 4m depth, on a frond of brown algae (Sargassum ? lacerifolium) at Rapid Head, south of Rapid Bay Jetty, on 26/01/04.

I had a vague notion I'd seen this creature before, and after confirming its identity by reference to Edgar’s book I discovered that I already had some mediocre photographs of T. corticalis in my collection, taken at Noarlunga Reef, on 11/01/97.

To quote Edgar: "The animal is bright chrome yellow with a wide foot, and the shell is oval-shaped and covered by a thick brown layer (the periostracum) with strong radial ridges. The species is widely distributed through southern Australia but is not abundant and is very rarely seen outside the autumn months. It feeds on a yellow sponge (Pseudoceratina Sp.)"

These small, unobtrusive slugs would be easily overlooked by divers, and it was only by chance that I spotted this recent specimen when it was illuminated by bright sunlight as its algal perch moved out of the shade in the gentle surge.

In the shade it was quite cryptic against the brown algae.

[Note: I don’t recall seeing any of its yellow host sponge in the immediate vicinity but there are plenty of encrusting sponges, including yellow ones on rocky ledges in this area.]

This might explain these books’ statements concerning mainly autumn records.

They would be easy for rockhoppers to spot in intertidal pools, and perhaps they move into very shallow water seasonally such that they only inhabit rock pools in autumn, at which time they also may be approaching maturity and would be larger and easier to see.

Both the ones I saw were only about 20mm long, while Edgar gives a maximum length of 100mm, so they were probably very immature.

Another variable of possible relevance in exploring why I’ve only seen Tylodinids in summer could be that although they occur widely throughout southern and eastern Australia, water temperatures in S.A’s Gulfs have by January probably already reached or surpassed the peak warm-season inshore water temperatures of much of the other rocky coastline within this species distribution.

So if, as seems likely, water temperature is an important determinant of THEIR lifecycle, Tylodinids in S.A’s Gulfs might do in summer what their counterparts in other areas of southern Australia usually do in autumn.

And then, of course, there’s always Global Warming ….!?