Understanding, enjoying and caring for our oceans
My snorkel buddy Dan and I sighted this Smooth Stingray, Bathytoshia brevicaudata, in Angas Inlet (between Torrens Island & Garden Island) in early February 2017: – We had been snorkelling at the Garden Island fishing platform (jetty?) before we decided to swim across Angas Inlet to Torrens Island. It was […]
The Fab Five can be found in South Australia’s Commonwealth Marine Parks. They are five of SA’s ‘Fabulous’ charismatic species – the Australian sea lion, White-bellied sea eagle, Giant Australian cuttlefish, Great white shark and Southern right whale. These Fab Five icons occur in SA’s seven Commonwealth Marine Parks. Australian […]
Forget the Fab Four, the Fab Five are here! The Fab Five are 5 icons from Australia’s Commonwealth Marine Parks. These 5 icons are Southern right whales, Giant Australian cuttlefish, Australian sea lions, Great White sharks and White-bellied sea eagles. There is a website about Finding the Fab Five. It […]
Society member, Chris Iwanicki recently sent me a message seeking assistance in identifying what he thought may have been two different angel shark species. Chris had been swimming about 100m out off of Somerton beach, in about 3m depth. He found what he thought may be two different specimens in […]
A highlight of our recent dive at Port Hughes jetty was the sighting of a Cobbler Wobbegong, Sutorectus tentaculatus. The shark seemingly sprang up out of nowhere between my buddy and me. It started off swimming more or less in my direction before suddenly turning and swimming towards my buddy, […]
Although our recent lock-down has now ended, this is an update to my “Lock-down Story No.4 – My Experiences with Sharks”. In Lock-down Story No.4 – My Experiences with Sharks, I overlooked a story from 1987. I have just rediscovered a report that I made in our April 1987 newsletter […]
It’s a wonder that I took up scuba diving at all after having seen the movie “Jaws” once or twice at that stage. I decided to take up diving after buying the book “The Skindiver’s Underwater World” by Graeme R Dodd, even though there was a chapter about sharks in […]
SHARKS SEEK SAFETY IN SUBMARINE VOLCANOES by Steve Reynolds (STEVE’S SDFSA SCIENCE STORY for the month of September) According to Hordes of sharks found living in volcano by Raffaella Ciccarelli, reef and hammerhead sharks are thriving in the explosive crater of Kavachi volcano in the Solomon Islands. (Sharks have also […]
Raising Awareness About Shark Safe Behaviour and Alternatives to Baited Drum Lines and Shark Nets Tony Isaacson recently posted these details on his Facebook page: – “I flag this video in the wake of Category 4 (fatal) human-shark incidents in Queensland (spearfisher, Fraser Island) and NSW (surfer, Wooli). Both incidents […]
A Study of Melanism in the Black Manta Rays of the Indo-Pacific by Steve Reynolds Melanism is “darkening of body tissues caused by excessive production of melanin, especially as a form of colour variation in animals”. I know that black manta rays in the Indo-Pacific does not relate to South […]