Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour's Journal

I am here providing an update on the habitat restoration component of the Blue World funded Valerie Taylor Prize project on "Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour". I am happy to announce that the four seahorse hotels installed by Sealife Aquarium on March 23rd in approximately 6 metres of water at Parsley Bay were finally sighted! The hotels have accrued some marine growth but no resident seahorses yet. I encourage others to take photos of these structures and associated growth if diving at Parsley Bay. We will also be regularly checking to see if any seahorses have "moved in". Thanks for pointing us in the right direction John Sear!

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, joseph_dibattista Dr Joseph DiBattista.

We have now completed our seventh month of the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project and I'd like to congratulate user johnsear for his Photo Observation of the Month of a Striate Anglerfish (Antennarius striatus) from Parsley Bay. And no, you are not seeing double, even though this is the second time a photo of a Striate Anglerfish was selected. We felt that this one in particular was a beauty, with its spotted body pattern readily apparent, which reinforces the extreme variability in colouration within this species.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

Today's journal entry simply proves that lightning can strike twice!! Soon after Erik Schlogl recorded the Orangespotted Glidergoby (Valenciennea puellaris) from Parsley Bay in southern Sydney Harbour, which represents an exceptional southern range extension from One Tree Island in Queensland (23°30'S), John Turnbull spotted a pair of this species in adjacent Camp Cove (see above photo). This follows a series of range extensions by tropical fishes in Sydney Harbour that we continue to record as people become more and more involved in this and other citizen science projects. Thanks to everyone for their contributions thus far!

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.

We have now completed our eighth month of the Marine Biodiversity of Southern Sydney Harbour project and I'd like to congratulate user nickatherine for her Photo Observation of the Month of June of a Winged Pocket Comb Jelly (Neis cordigera) from Parsley Bay. This observation was pulled from Nicole's countless hours of GoPro footage as an avid snorkeler at Parsley Bay over many years. Comb jellies do not often get a lot of love, but this ctenophore is particularly interesting in that it is among the largest species in the class (up to 30 cm in length), characterized by a pair of trailing gelatinous wings, and this individual exhibits a yellowish to deep orange-red pigmentation. We also dig the hints of electric blue! Notably, this is only the sixth record (ever!!) of this species from inside Sydney Harbour adding to the three previous iNaturalist observations and two specimens preserved at the Australian Museum dating back to 1923. Keep those spineless animal observations coming everyone.

This journal post was written by project leader and iNaturalist member, Dr Joseph DiBattista.