Marine Life Society of
South Australia Inc.
Newsletter
March 2009
No. 363
Next Meeting
The next General Meeting will be held on Tuesday
the 17th March.
This will be held at the Adventure Blue
clubrooms on the Patawalonga frontage at 8.00pm. Please enter via the
stairs at the side of the building. If you cannot find us on the night then
phone me on 0407395566 and I will give you directions.
Our speaker will be Steve Leske who will be discussing Invasive Marine
Creatures. This is a “must attend” for all divers and snorkellers, in fact
anyone with an interest in keeping our marine waters free of invaders!!.
CONTENTS
Some Of My Dives At Magazine Bay & Point Turton Jetty (Steve
Reynolds)
Recent Reef Life Survey Trip To
Yorke Peninsula – Part 2 (Steve Reynolds)
Physalia Gas (Steve
Reynolds)
Thank you Steve
Without
your continual supply of articles there would not have been a Newsletter this
month!
I ask
(again) for other members to contribute articles on any marine related subject
so I can have a variety of views. The length of the article does not matter, I
can adjust as necessary. Please help me to continue creating an interesting and
informative Newsletter.
Some Of
My Dives At Magazine Bay & Point Turton Jetty
by Steve Reynolds
Although I had
previously dived at Point Turton jetty, the first time that I recall staying
there was in May 1985. I had done a dive at the jetty three months earlier. The
vis then was good during slight seas. In May, I stayed
in a small caravan over three days and I was able to do a single dive at the
jetty on each of those days. The water was apparently always calm for me and
the maximum depth was just 4m. I had good visibility of some 6-9m.
I was able to
return to the jetty a couple of times for further dives that year. (I managed a
total of 40 dives that year. I was much younger back then.) I stayed at Point
Turton again over the October Labour Day holiday long weekend that year and I
did a couple of dives under the jetty once more. Although the water was
slightly choppy, I again had fairly good vis at 4m. I
particularly remember this dive for a sighting of a large sand star, Luidia australiae –
a sighting that still stands out in my memory after some 23 years.
My only reason for relating all of these details
is that I recall my first sighting of Magazine Bay during that October Labour
Day holiday long weekend trip to Point Turton. We had arrived at Point Turton
on the Friday night. On the Saturday morning, I walked along the cliff tops
away from our campsite close to the jetty. The views of Spencer Gulf from the
high cliff tops were lovely. I found a spot where I could climb down on to a
sandy beach. It was a lovely bay, which was protected from the prevailing winds
of the time. I went rock hopping back towards our campsite whilst the tide was
low. I was later told that the name of the bay was Magazine Bay and I recall
thinking that it was an appropriate name for such a beautiful ‘postcard’ view.
Two photos of Magazine Bay placed together to create (an incomplete) panorama
(Taken by Steve Reynolds, December 2007)
The book “West
of the Peesey” by the Warooka Historical Committee
(1976) explains how Magazine Bay got its name. There is/was a quarry at Point
Turton that was mined for flux, which was shipped over the jetty from 1890.
According to “West of the Peesey”, “In March 1899,
(the District Council of Warooka) asked that all explosives be cleared from the
jetty area and stored in a safe place away from the jetty, and this is possibly
when the first use of Magazine Bay as a storage place was made.” So, it seems
that Magazine Bay was used for the storage of explosives (for the quarry?) 110
years ago.
After October 1985, I don’t know if I ever saw
Magazine Bay again, but the memory of it stayed with me for years. So much so,
that when I eventually returned to spend a few days at Point Turton, 27 years
later, I wanted to do a solo dive there. That was at the end of December 2007,
during my Christmas leave. (I apologize for turning this intended ‘short story’
into another ‘epic’.) The temperatures around that time were in the 40s. I
decided to first do a reconnaissance snorkel at Magazine Bay late in the day to
check it out. I found that there were now steps leading down to the beach. I
did a 15-minute snorkel at the right hand side of the bay (see below). I was
pleasantly surprised by what I saw in the water i.e. a boxfish on the other
side of the first rock that I looked around.
The spot where I
snorkelled at Magazine Bay
(Taken by Steve
Reynolds, December 2007)
I decided to do a solo scuba dive in the bay early next morning (New Year’s
Eve) before it got too hot in the sun. I entered the water at the left hand
side of the bay this time (see below), and slowly edged my way out beyond the
rocky point there.
The spot where
I did my solo dive at Magazine Bay
(Taken by
Steve Reynolds, December 2007)
Between 8 & 9am, I enjoyed a one-hour dive with good vis
down to 6m. I saw lots of fish and I was able to take a few photographs with my
Sea & Sea camera.
A congregation of Heliocidaris erythrogramma
sea urchins at Magazine Bay
(Taken by Steve Reynolds, December 2007)
The first photo that I took during my dive at Magazine Bay is shown above.
It features a congregation of several sea urchins, Heliocidaris
erythrogramma, on a small rocky outcrop. This became a common sight during
my dive there.
I caught a glimpse of an eagle ray during my dive at Magazine Bay, which
had turned out to be a lovely spot. Later that day, in the afternoon, I did
another solo dive beneath the Point Turton jetty. It was ‘cowfish heaven’, with
lots of cowfish of both species, plus at least two
white-barred boxfish, Anoplocapros lenticularis, being sighted there.
A white-barred
boxfish, Anoplocapros lenticularis,
beneath Point Turton jetty
(Taken by Steve
Reynolds, December 2007)
(The book “West of the Peesey”
by the Warooka Historical Committee (1976) says that Captain Hutchinson RN,
commander of the Admiralty survey schooner Beatrice, gave the name of Point
Turton. He is said to have named the spot after the accountant of the Savings
Bank (Adelaide), Mr HH Turton (who had married Caroline Daly, the daughter of
Sir Dominick Daly, the Governor of SA.)
KANGAROO ISLAND PENGUIN CENTRE
KINGSCOTE WHARF.
P.O. BOX 536,
KINGSCOTE.
K.I. SA
5223
PH: 08)8553 3112
FX: 08)8553 3025
OPEN EVERY EVENING
TOURS TAKE 1
HOUR AND INCLUDE OUR GUIDES FEEDING SOME OF THE SEACREATURES IN OUR SALTWATER
AQUARIUMS FOLLOWED BY A TORCHLIT FORESHORE WALK AMONGST KINGSCOTE’S LITTLE
PENGUIN COLONY WHERE ON DARK NIGHTS WE LOOK AT THE EVENING STARS.
IN BETWEEN THE TOURS THERE IS AN
OPPORTUNITY TO LOOK AT THE AQUARIUMS ONLY at $2.00 EACH.
TOURS & OPENING HOURS
(times change during the year due to
daylight saving)
Opening Hours: April, May, June, July, August, September.
7.00 pm. Tours: 7.30 pm & 8.30 pm
Opening Hours: Early October, November, February, March.
8.00 pm. Tours: 8.30 pm &
9.30 pm.
Opening Hours:
November, December.
8.15. pm.
Tours: 8.45 pm & 9.30 pm
PRICES to 1/4/09
Adults:
$15.00
Child:
$ 6.00 (3 years old to 14 years inclusive)
Family:
$36.00 (2 adults & 2 children, extra child $3.00)
Concession/Student: $13.00 (must show card)
PELICAN FEEDING
5.00
PM EVERYDAY AT THE KINGSCOTE WHARF.
A popular lively & informative talk at the
water’s edge at a cost of $3.00 per person.
Recent Reef Life Survey
Trip To Yorke Peninsula – Part 2
by Steve Reynolds
Photographs by Steve
Reynolds except where otherwise credited.
In my article
titled “Recent Reef Life Survey Trip to Yorke Peninsula” (MLSSA Newsletter,
January 2009), I reported on my participation in the Reef Life Surveys trip to
Yorke Peninsula with Chris Hall over the October 2008 Labour Day holiday long
weekend. My report briefly mentioned that we visited Point Turton to dive at
Magazine Bay. There was, of course, much more to the story than that. We had
firstly driven from Edithburgh to Troubridge Hill. Diving there was thought to
be out of the question and the RLS team was seeking ideas for suitable
locations to continue reef-monitoring training. Chris Hall happened to mention
the possibility of going to Point Turton where there are a couple of bays. I
was able to add that Magazine Bay at Point Turton would be suitable for
reef-monitoring training in about 6m of water. I had done a solo dive Magazine
Bay in December 2007 so I was able to describe access to the bay and what could
be found underwater there. I said that it was a nice little reef area with
quite a few fish around and that I considered it to be a smaller version of
Port Noarlunga reef. My ‘expert’ knowledge was sufficient to persuade the team
that Magazine Bay would be suitable, so we journeyed over to Point Turton to
find the bay.
I managed to direct the RLS team from Troubridge
Hill to Magazine Bay. We parked our vehicles on the cliff top, close to the
steps down on to the beach. The water looked a little dirty, but conditions
were reasonable for diving there. The divers (everyone?) geared up and then
walked down the steep steps to the beach. We prepared ourselves for the entry
into the water in designated groups. I was to be diving with Rick Stuart-Smith
(the RLS team leader) and a chap called Dimitri. Rick entered the water ahead
of Dimitri and myself, and waited out there for us. I was waiting on Dimitri,
but I slowly started to edge my way into the water too. Dimitri was having a
few problems during his entry and he told me to go ahead without him. It was
around mid-day when I made my way towards Rick and we both snorkelled out to
the western point of the bay. Rick laid out a 50m-long transect tape and
proceeded to perform the standard RLS reef-monitoring techniques whilst I
followed him around to observe the methods and procedures that he employed.
A Reef Life Survey diver
conducting reef monitoring
(Source: “Reef Life
Survey Standardized Survey Procedures for Monitoring Reef Ecosystems”)
Rick was
recording his observations on a RLS sheet and also taking some photographs. I
also recorded my own observations on a RLS sheet to practise
the methods used.
The water was calm to start with. We did our
transect recording in about 3m of water. The visibility was poor at about 5m.
My total time spent in the water was about one hour. The water had become
somewhat rough by the time that we had finished. I later recorded sightings of
Castlenau’s wrasse, trachinops, magpie perch, sweep, talma, little weed
whiting, other wrasses, sea urchins, starfish, abalone, sponges and shells,
including tulip shells and hammer oysters in my dive logbook. My RLS sheet may
have shown more details than this. The sight of a dead orange anglerfish during
the dive had surprised Rick and me. There was no indication of what might have
killed it at all.
The RLS team may
have had some mixed feelings about the dive site but I was happy with the
results. We all changed back into our dry clothes for the trip back to the Boat
House at Edithburgh. We sorted out our dive gear and enjoyed a late lunch. It
was then decided that we were going to do a dive at Edithburgh jetty.
Boxfish LHS Magazine Bay
It was about
this time that I managed to slip across the road to visit the Edithburgh Museum
briefly before having to gear up for a dive at the jetty. I had
(barely) a couple of minutes to enquire at the museum about the whereabouts of
the ‘Kona Hut’. I was told that the museum did not have any such information
but, by some coincidence, a man by the name of G Chapman had made the same
enquiry the previous weekend. When I asked if that would have been Gifford
Chapman, I was told that that was his name.
The museum managed to
put me in contact with Gifford who had moved from Kangaroo Island to Moonta
Bay. I had previously met Gifford on KI in November 1989, and a later phone
call to him renewed our acquaintance. He even seemed to remember our previous
meeting at Peter Telfer’s house one evening. I told Gifford that I was seeking
information about the Kona and, more specifically, the ‘Kona Hut’. He
agreed to send me his “Kona file” as long as I agreed to return it to
him when I had finished with it. The file contained many photographs and paper
cuttings. It also included a map that pinpointed the remains of the ‘Kona Hut’.
But I digress. That is all part of a different story.
Rather than put wet dive gear back on, I geared up
in a second (dry) wetsuit for the Edithburgh dive. The wetsuit pants were only
5mm
thick though and I noticed the 1.5mm difference as I entered
the water from the jetty steps. The conditions were pretty good though, and the
visibility was quite good too.
Magazine
Bay reef
RHS Magazine Bay
I was to
‘shadow’ Toni Cooper, the other RLS officer, this time as she performed the
same RLS methods and procedures first shown to me by Rick. We did our
50m-transect line work 6m beneath the left hand side of the jetty. I later
recorded sightings of a Hill’s side-gilled sea slug, several cuttlefish, mosaic
leatherjacket, ringed toadfish, talma, trachinops, wrasses, sweep, magpie
perch, bullseyes, wavy grubfish, gobies, pygmy leatherjacket, goatfish,
globefish, moonlighter, snook, spider crabs, scallops, sea cucumber, sea stars
and nudibranchs in my dive logbook. The sea stars included Tosia australis
& Uniophora granifera. The nudibranchs included Ceratosoma
brevicaudatum, Nuodoris chrysoderma & Doriopsilla carneola.
Although I was
using the same air cylinder with the remaining air left over from my dive at
Magazine Bay, Point Turton, I still managed another 64 minutes of dive time
with it. Toni was diving with a full cylinder and she understood when I
informed her that I was leaving her to finish the monitoring by her self. I
exited the water back at the jetty steps and proceeded to walk back to the Boat
House up the road. I met up with Dimitri who had already completed a brief
dive. He said that he would inform the others that I had returned to the Boat
House.
When Dimitri arrived back at the jetty, he was
soon confronted by anxious divers exiting the water with talk of a white
pointer shark sighting by Adrian Browne and Renate Velzeboer. The pair had been
doing their reef monitoring at the outer end of the jetty when they came face
to face with a 4m-long white pointer shark there. After the initial shock of
the sighting, they both lay low for a little while. They then caught up with
the remaining divers in the water and advised them to make a hasty exit.
Unfortunately, no one thought to take any photos of the shark. Adrian and
Renate both suffered a little shock and they relived their nightmare a little
during the night. Both were still keen to dive again the next day, although a
considerable distance away from Edithburgh.
As it happened, I didn’t get to do any more dives
during that holiday long weekend myself as I had to return home by early
evening.
Physalia Gas
by Steve Reynolds
Following the
publication of my article titled “100s of Physalia washed ashore at Port
MacDonnell recently” in our October 2008 Newsletter (No.359), Ian Kirkegaard
sent us the following information regarding Physalia gas: -
“One of the
interesting features of Physalia is the composition of the gas in the
float. Uncommonly for the animal world, much of it is carbon monoxide.
Photo by Joan Lockwood
This from ‘Sea
Frontiers’, v. 34, (#3) p. 188 - May-June 1988: -
“The principal
gas in the pneumatophore, or float, of the Portuguese
man-of-war (Physalia utriculus) is carbon monoxide. This gas, which is
almost insoluble in water and which is found in only trace amounts in the air,
can constitute 28% of the gas in the float. The rest of the gas is air that
enters through diffusion. A special gas gland in the animal produces the carbon
monoxide and secretes it into the float.”
Unfortunately,
‘Sea Frontiers’ ceased publication in about the 1990s, and nothing seems to
have taken its place for these kinds of observations.
If you care to
google ‘carbon monoxide’ coupled with Physalia, you will turn up more recent
work on the (fairly tricky) biochemistry behind the generation of the CO, and
other biological generation of CO in marine organisms. Not a gas you would
expect animals to secrete, given its toxic properties, but all part of life's
rich tapestry.”
I tried googling ‘carbon monoxide’ coupled with Physalia and came
up with 546 results.
“Portuguese
Man-of-war (Physalia physalis)” by Miranda
Hoover at
http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/MarineInvertebrateZoology/Physaliaphysalis.html
provides some interesting information, good references and a few
handy links. It also gives the taxonomy (Taxononmy?)
for the species as follows: - Phylum: Cnidaria, Class: Hydrozoa, Order: Siphonophora, Family: Physaliidae.
We have purchased
a copy of Karen Gowlett-Holmes’ book “A field guide
to the marine invertebrates of South Australia” since my article “100s of Physalia
washed ashore at Port MacDonnell recently” was published.
Karen says that Physalia
physalis is “Found in open water, on moderately
exposed to open coasts; surface waters only. The Bluebottle is colonial,
supported by a gas-filled float which emerges above the sea surface and is
pushed along by the wind, or drifts with the current. Below the float are the
feeding and reproductive zooids. The large feeding tentacles have powerful
nematocysts and are capable of giving an extremely painful sting. Colonies in
SA rarely have floats >60 mm long with tentacles to about 1m when extended.
In warmer waters, the float can be much larger and the tentacles can extend to
about 10m. Cosmopolitan, found worldwide in temperate to subtropical oceanic
waters. Commonly found close to shore in SA in summer, often washes ashore in
very large numbers on ocean beaches.” Two photographs are featured with the
text.
Many thanks go to Ian Kirkegaard for sending us
the information regarding Physalia gas.
