Eastern Beach

An Even Closer Lok At Decorator Worms

Jade Craven · January 26, 2024 ·

On Monday, I was excited to find more decorator worms at Eastern Beach. I decided to return by myself on Wednesday to get a closer look.

I got there about 3 hours before low tide and this was too early. I didn’t find many decorator worms – either above or below the tide point. Things improved once after an hour when the tide was around the .3m mark. I was able to get good views of the worms.

I wasn’t able to get the photos I wanted. The beach was crowded, so I tried to move away from people. I was also wearing a dress so had to crouch down. My bum still got wet.

Eastern Beach Wander: January 2024

Jade Craven · January 24, 2024 ·

These critters were found in the promenade area. A friend suggested that the above flatworm could be Imogene macgrathi, but the photos didn’t show enough of the features. The species is also known as the oyster leech.

My nephew found what looked like ascidians in the bottom two photos. I’m not so sure after seeing the photos up close.

Terebellid Worm species found at Eastern Beach

Jade Craven · January 23, 2024 ·

Seth and I were at the floating pontoon at Eastern Beach when he announced that he’d caught something in his net. He said that it looked like its guts had fallen out, which we’d seen happen with sea cucumbers. The end of the worm was swollen and had red near it, which seemed to confirm some of of injury.

I got photos from different angles to see if I could identify it later. Yet, I was reminded of how some spaghetti worms at Apollo Bay had looked out of the water.

It looked different to one of the terebellid worms I’d found in Apollo Bay harbour. In this post, I shared two species of spaghetti worms I had found. I didn’t get any super close photos of the top species, as I only had my phone camera with me at the time. But the body looked more smooth than this one.

I wasn’t sure whether this actually was a terebellid worm so put it back in the water.

I was right!

You can see the branchiae in the bellow photos. It took me a while to figure out what branchiae – they are the red thingies before the main cream coloured tentacles. There is a slight physical difference but the detail isn’t good enough.

I have now seen three different species. Am hoping to find more.

Sea Critters Found At Eastern Beach Pontoon

Jade Craven · January 22, 2024 ·

There is a small floating ponton in the Fishermans Basin area at Eastern Beach. Most of the time, it is inaccessible. This is because it’s close to an area where helicopters take off.

I have a strict rule. If access is blocked off, we don’t go on it. Even if the helicopter isn’t there. Tonight, however, it wasn’t blocked off.

We explored here during the pandemic. At that point, I didn’t have my underwater camera. I found some cool ascidians at the end of the pontoon about four months ago and wanted to explore more.

Marine Life at Limeburners Point Boat Ramp

Jade Craven · January 21, 2024 ·

I was so excited by the diversity at Queenscliffe harbour that I decided to finally check out the boat ramp at limeburners point. I’d had quick looks here before but wanted to have a proper look over the side of the pontoon.

It isn’t an area I’d likely return too. Was too busy, even though there wasn’t that many boats or people there. I didn’t find many sea squirts. I’m not sure about most of what I found.

I’ll stick to St Helens boat ramp for now until I have the resources to go to boat ramps and pontoons that are further afield.