Apollo Bay

Seth and I were looking for critters at Apollo Bay harbour when we found this worm. We put it in the container and tried to get photos of it from different angles, along with other animals we’d found.

Well… an eleven armed sea star very quickly found the worm and started eating it. I don’t think I’ve seen a sea star eat another critter before. I’m not sure what the worm species is. I’m putting a pause on trying to learn about, and identify, them as there are just too many species I’m encountering.

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Last year we found a cool Terebellid worm in the harbour. The tentancles were this pink/purplish colour. I had been so keen to track down the species again so I could get better photos. I was hoping that it was a species that hadn’t been seen before or described.

We were able to find four different types of spaghetti worm this trip with minimal effort. I reckon there may have been more species if we had looked.

All species match descriptions in the Marine Research Groups Oddments booklet (2012.)

A number of species also seemed to live in tubes.

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Herdmania grandis

My nephew has recently gotten into fishing. He spent a couple of afternoons fishing off one of the pontoons in Apollo Bay harbour. This suited me: I could lean over the pontoon and see what marine life was there.

I was only able to find four main types of sea squirts this trip. Of those types, I’m only able to identify one of them. It is fascinating to compare the sea squirts here compared to the ones in Apollo Bay. They are so different! It’s a completely new challenge.

It was difficult to spend much time looking under the pontoons due to the amount of people fishing here – and there was’t even that many! Will try to return outside of the school holidays to observe other species.

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These ascidians were under the floating pontoons at the back of the harbour. I haven’t tried to identify them other than narrow them down to type.

Botrylloides

[Read more…] about Colonial Ascidians Under Apollo Bay Harbour