Squid, Sharks & the Sassy Angelfish at Outer Rock on Friday

From Jennifer Marohasy’s Blog

Jennifer Marohasy

Last Friday it was noisy, so noisy underwater at Outer Rock Reef, to the northeast of Great Keppel Island.  

Two humpback whales!  They were having a conversation, that included some screeching, and some howling.  

Were they surprised to see the six of us humans underwater?  We couldn’t see them – but we could hear them.   Visibility was perhaps 10 metres, underwater.

Topside it was a clear sunny day, and on the way back to Great Keppel Island, from the boat we spotted them breeching.  So beautiful.  

What I did see under the water was a lot of dead coral, so much dead branching Acropora spp..  Now dead from the bleaching back in February and March.   I have estimated about one third of the area of coral has been lost across at the Keppel Islands.  But not of all coral species, it is the Acropora spp. as plates but especially as branching, which have been most affected.  

On the one hand it has been difficult to see so much death.  But there is still so much life.  

One of the highlights of the dive last Friday was to see two Epaulette sharks (Hemiscyllium ocellatum).  One of them lay across an area of broken and mostly dead coral.  My wide-angle photograph of the shark with buddy Jen photographing it allows some assessment of how much, and what all this dead coral looks like in this area at about 10 metres depth.   And it was not easy to spot the shark, its natural colours merged with the algal infested coral.  

Stare long enough amongst the dead corals and you find all sorts of things, including nudibranchs. My photographs, wide angle and close-up, are of a gold and blue tiny Phyllidia ocellata.

Around a corner I found that same sassy scribbled angel fish (Chaeotodontoplus duboulayi) that came right up to me a month ago, when I last swam this section of reef on 20th June.   On Friday, again, the same fish came up and had a good look inside my face mask.  Until I reached for my camera, and then it swam away. 

I put my camera down, and made some whales noises, and the fish came back and looked me in the eye, waving its head about the other side of my mask.   How I wished, at that moment, I could have communicated that he was indeed a beautiful fish, and so fearless.

The other exceptionally beautiful animals that I saw underwater last Friday were the squid.  Four of them, moving in unison, even staring at me in unison.  They did everything as an evenly spaced foursome. 

I checked on the expanding patch of bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor).   Remember at this dive site – not far from the mooring.  Where the branching Acropora spp. have lost to the macro-algae with the bubble-tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) pushing through – taking over.  

The dying coral, heavily infested with algae, is being replaced by this expanding mass of anemones dotted with blackback clown fish (Amphiprion melanopus).   Most unexpectedly this apparently expanding mass of anemone is still stark white, but obviously very alive and keeping its tentacles clean of algae.

And so, the bleached anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) with the help of its symbiotic clowns, is making the very most of the demise of the corals.   

Indeed, coral cover may have reduced significantly at this reef, but species diversity is arguably on the rise.   

I am very grateful to Keppel Dive, and especially my buddy Jenn (another one) for so many memories.

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The feature image (very top) is of that angelfish, that is so curious.  A scribble angelfish, Chaetodontoplus duboulayi