Eastern Beach

Hunting For Sea Squirts In The Swimming Enclosure

Jade Craven · December 24, 2023 ·

Stalked Sea Squirt

I returned to Eastern Beach on Friday to get a closer look at the sea squirts found in the shallow part of the swimming enclosure. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find much, as the council had recently done dredging in the area. I was still able to find a number of sea squirts.

The trip allowed me to see entire specimens, rather than just siphons. As always, I want to return to do more exploring and perhaps go deeper.

Sponges at Eastern Beach

Jade Craven · December 23, 2023 ·

We found a lot of sponges when looking for marine critters recently. The only problem? I’ve been so busy researching other types of marine life and would have no idea here to start with sponges. For now, I’m going to continue taking photos of them and will learn more about them down the track.

Looking For Decorator Worms at Eastern Beach

Jade Craven · December 22, 2023 ·

It was the first low (at a decent time) that we’d had in months. I’d been having a lot of fun looking for any sea squirts that had washed up. Then I noticed these small tubes in the ground. I didn’t think much of it and snapped a few photos of the tubes.

When I got home, I noticed that there was a critter inside of the tube! It turns out that it is from the Diopatra genus, otherwise known as decorator worms.

I eagerly waited until the next low tide so I could do some more investigating.

Eastern Beach Marine Life: December 20

Jade Craven · December 21, 2023 ·

These photos were taken on December 20. All of these creatures were founder between the Eastern Beach swimming enclosure and limeburners point.

I had the camera on the underwater setting, so most of the photos came out blurry. These photos curate the specimens that didn’t easily fall into other categories. In most cases, I haven’t tried to identify them.

Marine Worms at Eastern Beach

Jade Craven · December 20, 2023 ·

I was super keen to return to Eastern Beach after the success of our last trip. This time, I wanted to explore the section between the promenade and Limeburners point. Seth and I previously had a lot of luck here a couple of years ago finding ribbon worms, flatworms and a variety of other cool critters.

The above species was identified as either a Nereididee or Terebellidae. I guessed that it may be a terebellid worm so am pretty happy.