DIVELOG JUNE 406

This is the best site in Australia to get photos of our endemic Leafy Seadragon, and the trip went one better than I had hoped for with two cavorting in close proximity. I assume they were a mating pair as they were never too far away from each other. One is great, two are spectacular! One tick on my list, off to the next. We have plenty of blue devils in Victoria where I live, but I have never managed to get one that has sat in a good spot in clear water where I was able to take a photo without backscatter. This was a great relief to fi nally achieve. A third was with a lone longnose boar fi sh that was curious enough to wander into photo distance a few times before heading out past the pylons into deeper water. So, then you start to look for other things. A particularly beautiful male black-spotted wrasse seemed to follow me around for a while, so he made a nice photographic subject that I could take my time with. Long-nosed weed whiting were about; and eventually a beautifully patterned male paused long enough within range for a photo or two before scurrying back into the safety of the seagrass. Then I spotted an old adversary that I had never had much luck in photographing. The male blue herring cale is a hard fi sh to get a good shot of. They are black with some electric blue markings, grow to about half a

Western talma are a cold water butterflyfish found in southern Australian waters. Rapid Bay would be close to the easternmost area of their range.

Blackspotted wrasse are found in shallow water towards western Australia, but only in deep water on the east coast. Here at Rapid Bay they are everywhere.

Swimming back to the exit jetty underwater was over the seagrass beds. This large crab was one find.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #406 - June ‘23

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