Apollo Bay Harbour

One of the benefits of returning to Apollo Bay was being able to explore the rockpools at night again. I was determined to learn as much as I could. Thanks to the GoPro, my life seemed to revolve around tide times.

Alas, I’m a newbie and didn’t always get the information I needed for identification. Here is what we found:

I’m guessing the above is an abalone but it is really beyond my skill base. I’ve tried to find more information online but it all comes up with commercial information.

Update: I asked online, and was told it was “air-breathing sea-slugs, Onchidella nigricans.” Der! They were in the book, just curled differently. One of the problems of trying to self-teach myself so gosh much.

(Birds are easier. Entomology is equally as tricky, but don’t have to deal with underwater photography AND not knowing whether its safe to touch a species.)

Above is Ischnochiton australis, but one that is very encrusted. The person I asked – a marine researcher from the Field Nats – had never seen one that encrusted before, so I don’t feel bad for being a newbie as much. This week I’ve been playing catch up and have asked so many questions.

Apollo Bay Harbour had a lot of sand this visit, it really messed with the conditions. I don’t know if this had anything to do with it.

Fish:

The below was identified as belonging to the genus Spratelloides but this is beyond my skillset.

The above is Sculptured Goby. Fishes of Australia describe it as:

Body slender, head depressed with several distinctive raised skin flaps giving a sculptured appearance; eyes close together; mouth small, jaws ending in front of eye.

Overall dark brown, with a reticulated pattern of pale spots surrounded by brown lines and several broad saddles or bands across top of body; a pale stripe from eye to rear of jaws.

Bearded Crab:

I’ve narrowed this down to a hairy crab belonging to the pilumnus genus. Either bearded or common but I can’t get a close enough look at the carapace! I kinda do and am leaning towards the common one, pilumnus tomentosus. I just didn’t get a clear enough shot as I didn’t know what area to focus on. I made myself leave the crab book at home.

Sunset

I took mum rockpooling one night to explore just how diverse it could be. Unfortunately, we left too early and got home before the cool stuff came out. We did catch this sunset:

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Apollo Bay on this trip was to test out the GoPro, and not just in the rockpools. I had heard that the harbour was great for biodiversity but only had experience from the rockpools over a couple of trips.

My aunt had taken my nephew fishing, so I decided to muck around. The below video is of the sea life growing on the floating walkway I was on, that leads to the boats. I was curious to see if there were any animals lurking about. I didn’t see any, but it was interesting footage regardless.

There were plenty of fish around but I struggled to get any on camera. Sometimes I wouldn’t turn it on properly and it was hard to aim in the proper direction, as it was my first use. The below footage was the best I could get.. this trip.

Comb Jelly

I posted this in a Facebook Group and it got a positive reaction, although I am still unsure if it is relevant to anyone. I saw something floating on top of the water. I wasn’t sure whether it was rubbish but thought it was worth getting a shot.

The photos are made more difficult by the reflection, but the video shows the whole thing. I hope to explore this better in a future trip.

On my last trip to Apollo Bay, I encountered two sea hares. You can read more about them at:

• Sea Hare in Apollo Bay Harbour
• More Apollo Bay Sea Hares

I was so enamoured that I decided that I would buy a GoPro to help with my rockpooling efforts. The one I was looking at was in the 500+ range so I put it off as one of the things I’d try to get before next summer. Until I got an email from JB Hifi saying that you could get a GoPro 4 for $200.

Sold! And, armed with fancy technology, I asked my family if I could visit Apollo Bay with them the next weekend.

As I will explain, my GoPro experiments were a bit hit and miss. However, it was all worth it. On the final night, when rockpooling with Seth, we came across these guys:

There were two sea hares. Annoyingly, we discovered them about 10 minutes before my parents were due to pick us up. They offered to take Seth home and let me stay there for longer but I was knackered. I’d gotten what I wanted and was content.

Ironically, the GoPro footage didn’t really work. I was shooting underwater from the side and the light was coming from above, so it didn’t really work out. I managed to get some decent video using my phone.

It was later identified as Aplysia Juliana.

Aplysia juliana is said to grow to 300 mm in length and is very variable in colour. The parapodia join very high up posteriorly. One very distinctive behavioural feature is that the posterior end of the foot forms a sticky ‘sucker’ which is used in the peculiar ‘looping’ form of crawling that this species exhibits. Rather than the smooth crawling found in most species of Aplysia, in A. juliana the posterior end of the foot forms a broad sucker which attaches to a surface and then the rest of the body stretches forward, the front then attaches and the posterior part is drawn forward. The form of locomotion, the lack of a purple gland and the parapodia joining high in the posterior midline are constant characters of this species.

via Sea Slug forum

There are quite a few colour forms of this species which are at present unable to be separated on anatomical grounds. the brownish form with pale spots is one of the most common forms, as is one with a uniform black colouration.

via Sea Slug Forum

Hoping to find more sea critters over the rest of the year, especially sea slugs. My love for wildlife will be put aside temporarily as I get used to studying at uni again.