Under the pier

Over the weekend P and me had a little adventure - snorkelling in search of Weedy Sea Dragons below the pier at Portsea in Victoria.

The weekend was hot.  I mean really hot.  So, being in the water was the only place to be.  Even after our hot weather the water is far from tropical, so we were both suited up to stay warm.

Small people get colder faster than larger ones - its all to do with surface area and volume, but I'm straying dangerously close to Year 9 science again.

Unfortunately, the Weedy Sea Dragons were shy at the time - and we did not see any.  (Now in case any of you think this is another crazy Stewart M kind of joke here is a link to a page about these fish - you will understand why we wanted to see them!)  I've seen them under the pier in the past - but not this time.

However, there was more than enough to see.  Most of the fish were too fast moving for my point and shoot - although this smooth stingray was slow enough for me to get a (rather unremarkable) picture.  Its about the size of a chess board.

Most remarkable were the sponge gardens on the piles of the pier.  Wonderful colours and strange forms.  There were also lots of Biscuit Star starfish, although the current and waves did not make for easy picture taking!

Finally, here is a picture of P in all her Marine Girl glory!  Note the snippet of red hair, just to let me know it was still there.  The blue cast to the whole picture is caused by the "under-water" white balance  setting!

You can find more pictures from around the world at Our World Tuesday!  cheers SM and MG!