Well my friends it’s time for an Australian update.
On our first day, I felt like a puppy chasing squirrels every time I dived for samples. I’d see something & be, “Ooooo amazing!” & have to make a note in my notebook. That first night I had about 12 pages of notes to put into my electronic notebook. Also, I got a very cool waterproof diving notebook for Christmas with refill pages. Like having an underwater spiral notebook to take notes in so I don’t have to surface or try to remember things when I do surface.
It’s made my note-taking so much easier! I don’t know how I lived without one of these till now.
I have made a LOT of new friends while diving here and I’m going to share a lot of them. Then I’ll talk about a few other things. This first guy I met watched me for 2 days. I named him Harold because he looked like a cranky old Harold.
Then I met this guy. He’s a Green Moray Eel, Gymnothorax prasinus. He let me know to stay away from his lair. Greens aren’t really dangerous though. He stayed and watched for a bit before sulking.
The next day I met this beautiful little Crescent-tail bigeye, aka, Priacanthus hamrur, a family of marine ray-finned fish. There are 12 species in the Genus & each one is just as vibrant & beautiful as this little guy.
The next day I met this beautiful Black Lionfish, Pterois volitans, (I know I spelled it wrong on the pic for a social media site and didn’t catch it). He was stunning, but he wasn’t all I met that day.
This guy showed up, a Common Stingray, Trygonoptera testacea. This isn’t what took the life of Steve Irwin, that was a Shortailed Stingray. This one was beautiful.
Finally that day, I met a Grey Nurse Shark. There were a LOT of them all over the place that week. Then a Banded Wobbegong Shark, and a Spotted Wobbegong Shark. The Greys are very safe to be around, but the Wobbegongs can be dangerous if provoked. But not that day. They liked me.
This guy followed me all day. Blue Groper/Blue Wrasse (Achoerodus viridis). Wrasses are smaller than gropers but the large size of this species is the reason behind its ‘groper’ name. It’s a beautiful example of the species & they are fascinated by humans.
The next new friends I met. First, staring out of the dark is Octopus Tetricus or a Common Sydney Octopus. They have unusual white eyes & small pavement-like patches & large papillae that can be raised all over to produce a spiked appearance.
Next, we have the beautiful Scorpaena Jacksoniensis or Eastern Red Scorpionfish. Yes, they can be dangerous, having 12 poisonous spinal spines. But they are rarely fatal & only aggressive if bothered. If like this guy you just quietly watch them, they’re happy to coexist & show their colors.
Some of you asked me online something I thought I should address. When I am gathering specimens I am NOT taking living flora or fauna from the area. I am only, for her project, retrieving small samples of dead coral, rocks, sand, dead animals, etc. Sometimes it takes me quite a while to find what I am… looking for, and during that time I can get some great photos and videos of everyone who calls that area home. Even for my research, I do NOT take full living creatures out of the sea. Mine deals a lot with fossilized, dead, or if need be, TINY genetic samples from living creatures that cause them no harm. The tagging some researchers do inflicts more trauma on the animals than the samples I get. Yes, at times I have to use a net to capture them. But they never leave the water and the way I use tiny, like insulin-sized needles, to obtain DNA samples is no more than the prick of say, if you took a razor-sharp sewing needle and barely pricked your finger.
So there is no stress to the environment from what we are doing.
My next encounter with some new friends started with a very friendly Port Jackson Shark- Heterodontus portusjacksoni. I would estimate this one was about 10 years old and about 5 feet long.
It’s an unusual species because… They can eat & breathe at the same time. Unusual for sharks, many need to swim with their mouth open to force water over the gills. This species pumps water into the 1st enlarged gill slit & out through the other 4 gill slits. By pumping water across the gills, it does not need to move to ‘breathe’.
I was having to scour the bottom that day and having the next guy as a visitor meant no stingrays were hiding under the sand, which could be potentially dangerous to me. The Eastern Shovelnose Ray- Aptychotrema rostrata. This was a beautiful specimen at around 3 feet long… Safer for me because they swim along the bottom which stirs up the sand and any hidden stingrays would have been exposed. So I followed along behind him for a bit, gathering up what I needed in safety.
On another day, I met this guy. A gorgeous Red Morwong, Cheilodactylus fuscus. They will sit like he is on their fins waiting. LOVE to eat worms & other little invertebrates. He sat & watched while I gathered some little scrapings. He almost let me stroke him with a finger before shooting off.
The last friend I’m sharing on this post is this beautiful little guy. He’s a Common Seadragon, or Weedy Seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus. Cousins to Seahorses, Seadragons do not have a pouch for rearing the young. Instead, male Seadragons carry the eggs, up to 250, fixed to the underside of the tail. He was looking for Mysids, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida who feed on the algae I was scraping today. Seadragons are very poor swimmers, which is why they are found on shore a lot, & why I moved extremely slowly around him to prevent any abrupt currents.
Some other great things while I am here, I love the Dojos I am training and sparring at. The Karate dojo has some Excellent Sensei’s, who are definitely pushing me to my limits to help me achieve my black belt goal as soon as possible. The Judo Dojo is another one ran by family of my Sensei in San Diego. MUCH larger then the one in Hawaii but no less friendly and inviting. I’ve even spent a few days just watching and talking with the little warriors. I’m not teaching, but they do like my suggestions now and then. They offered to let me teach a class on Saturdays, but I have so many other things, weather permitting, that I want to do and see here I couldn’t fit it in.
One down side to the Judo Dojo is their Nos-purrr-atu cat mascot and the damn thing won’t leave me alone.
I’m sure it knows I hate its devil kind.
I think now it’s to the point, it just comes near me to watch me move and glare at it.
Damn furry demon!
Seriously, I think this fucker is waiting for me to turn my back so he can kill me.
Now the Weather! OMG. I found out why this trip is much longer then the Hawaii trip. Over the last few years summer thunderstorms and wind have increased all over the country, as well as EXTREMELY high temperatures in certain areas. So with the storms and winds there are days we cannot go out on the water for safety sake. Those days I’ve been spending doing other things. Like writing this post today. Temp out is right at 100 F, but the winds on the water are supposed to hit 30 mph with gusts far exceeding that and they won’t go out in wind like that. It’s ok though, I’m finding things to do.
I bought a membership to the Australian Museum. It was only a bit more than the cost of the Ramses Exhibit they currently have going on, & included it so why not a full membership? I spent a Saturday going through the whole normal exhibit area, then a Sunday on the Ramses Exhibit. They were amazing! I seriously recommend, that even if it’s just the next town over, you go to a museum by yourself. Don’t get the walking tour if they have it. Just walk through, and each time you find something interesting, if they have info read it, then look it up on your phone and learn more or bookmark it for later. The trip will stay with you longer, and, if you find enough information on any of the exhibits, you’ll have great reading material long after your visit.
I could go on for hours about the food and restaurants. The vegan choices in Sydney are amazing! Some of my favorite places so far are:
Yulli’s Bar & Restaurant. Amazing food! If you visit Sydney, you HAVE to go and have the BBQ King Brown Mushrooms.
Vandal Taqueria is probably one of the most amazing vegan places I have ever been. Make sure to read the info page on their website. And for gosh sake have the mushroom quesadillas and the chargrilled corn!
Soul Burger is my #1 FAV place to eat here. A 100% plant-based spot. But it’s more than that. Lamb, duck, brisket, chicken, bacon & egg, ALL Vegan! My favorite is the Hoisin Duck & YES, add the jalapenos, Ancho-Chipotle fries & Strawberry shake.
It’s been an amazing trip so far. We’ve really made headway on the research, and I’ve been having a lot of fun!
Tomorrow morning I am flying to Adelaide. I have wanted to visit that city since I learned about it in a couple of movies that I love. I don’t know why, but something is just drawing me to it. So I’ll be there until Sunday night and flying back.
Then we will be back to doing our thing. I’ve got trips planned to other places too when I am not working so hopefully I can share some great things about them. We’re also going to the Great Barrier Reef.
In the last 2 weeks of February (02/17-03/03), we will be traveling to Cairns & going out on the Barrier Reef. This is my 4th trip to Australia, & 3rd, diving but I’ve never been to the Reef. This is a lifelong dream coming true. No weekends off while there. I’ll be diving for 14 days straight. I can’t wait!!!!!!
My BFF Jaq, who many of you know, will be arriving on February 14th, and staying until we’re done here. She’ll be going to the reef with us. Since she got her M.S. when I was conferred mine, she has just been running our business and teaching my little warriors, but she’s earned a nice long vacation, and maybe helping out a little. Her Degree is in Molecular Genetics so our Team lead thinks she may possibly have some good insight into some of the things she is researching.
Finally, for this post, when we are all done here, Jaq and I will be heading to Germany for two weeks. Just the two of us for a fun, completely non-working, actual vacation at Phantasialand in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and staying at the amazing Hotel Bing Lao. What drew us to this was seeing a video of this exhibit.
Check it out! OMG it looks amazing!
So that’s it for this update, I’ll do another one just before we leave for the Barrier Reef, and another when we are done there.
