Milestone passed: 1500 observations

Yesterday the Port Noarlunga project shot past another milestone: 1500 observations! The most recent batch was a set of photographs I took back in 2015 when I was just a very occasional visitor to the reef. On closer inspection of the images, I found a couple of nice surprises... one was a St Vincent's nudibranch crawling onto a Euryspongia sp. sponge, and the other was a Dusky morwong with what looks like a Western cleaner clingfish attached to its flank... probably providing the service it's named after.

In terms of exploration effort, you'll see some more data points have been added for the reef's southern section, and there are more to come. The southern section of reef is rewarding to explore, particularly for a snorkeler, as it is generally shallower than the northern section (as one might expect, being nearer to the mouth of a river). If the depth profile has changed in recent times, it would be worth investigating flooding events to cast possibilities about the timing of major silt-dumps.

The main frontiers as I see ahead for exploration and discovery on the reef now would appear to be nocturnal (many otherwise rarely seen crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms become active at night).. and sightings from the deeper, darker grottos of reef wall. The reef's boulderous structure creates a multitude of shaded areas of various size, many of which would require a diver to access, and ideally, nice bright video lights (given than the northern section of reef can b 7m+ to seabed).

Our species count has gradually increased to 274, with sponges and alga being the least resolved groups. Another great thrill of the week past was the observation of a sub-adult Western blue groper (possibly two similar aged individuals, or one individual observed twice) on the outer wall of the reef, south of the jetty. As you're probably well aware, these are slow-growing, site-attached fish that are protected by "no take" status in both SA gulfs to aid their recovery.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions to their project, including all the taxonomic discussions as we try to make sense of the less studied (in recent times at least) groups of organisms.

Posted on January 15, 2020 10:41 PM by danimations