See Emily play

Play time for all? or was it just playing with it's food? Pretty spectacular to catch it on camera nonetheless.

Link: HERE

Spectacular photos have emerged of a dolphin playfully tossing an octopus into the air off the coast of Western Australia.

 She said while it was not uncommon for dolphins to do the "octopus toss", it was rare to capture it on camera. "I've been studying dolphins for five to six years and never seen a dolphin play with an octopus for five minutes," Ms Nicholson told WAtoday."

Blister in the sun

Interesting reading indeed, but the question is what can we do to stop it beyond the breeding programmes alread out there?

Link: HERE

"Last fall, marine biologists reported that we’re currently in the midst of one of the largest coral die-offs they’d ever seen, and the third global bleaching event on record. This week at the Ocean Sciences Conference in New Orleans, NOAA will offer its first big update on the situation. And it ain’t good."

"In 1998, a massive underwater heat wave killed 18% of corals around the world in the first global bleaching event. This year’s coral bleaching is expected to impact 38% of the world’s coral reefs, decimating over 4,630 square miles (12,000 square kilometers) of reefs by 2016."

One sock blues

There's always some new mystery to solve in the ocean, as with this mysterious tale of the "purple sock" fish, creature, whatever, that they've been trying to solve for the last 60 years

Link: HERE

"The animal, called Xenoturbella, is so bizarre that for 60 years researchers could not work out what it was - or where it fitted into the family tree. But the discovery of four new species in the Pacific has enabled scientists to conclude that this animal belongs to one of the earliest branches of life."

Check out the link or the video below and see what you can make of it.

Irish Rover

Well updates will be little spotty over the next few weeks as my computer PSU has died on me and it will take a few weeks to get a new one onto the island so everything  is getting done on the tablet. Not ideal.

Link:HERE

Anyway, check out the footage of a new artificial reef being sunk (well it was sunk 21st November last year but the footage was just released). The Uribe 121, a former Mexican battleship (their term) was sunk 1.2 miles from the coast of Rosarito, Mexico. Enjoy.

Reflections of my life

Some wild winter weather we've been having on the rock the last week or two with high winds coming in from every direction so we headed East once more to escape the sea soaked shores were it was still overcast with 16 knots gusting up to 26 at times but it still couldn't dampen our ardour.

It was a relatively small boat today and Captain Nige, Captain in training Sarah and not Captain Caitlin were in fine form although they were wrapped up against the elements. Anyone would thing it was cold or something.....

Unfortunately North was out and it was a first stop at High Rock Drop Off where there has been alleged sighting of hammerheads, but it wasn't to be today, still it wasn't a bad little dive as wall dives go with some nice sponge and coral formations inhabited by a cornucopia of large shoals.

There was a reasonably stiff current which made some shot a little awkward but what you doing to do? You just get your fins down and get on with it. The snappers loved it though and they could resist regularly cruising over our heads and up from beneath us to prove a point.

The added bonus of a current also made things a bit of pain for some shot setups I had to do for an upcoming magazine safety feature. Caitlin was very kind enough to assist in buddying up with Jill for additional modelling duties. Thanks Caitlin!

Once back aboard, it was apparent that some people just weren't made for the "cold" (ha) weather so Captain Nige broke open the deck plate for everyone to warm their delicate tootsies and other parts of their anatomies on the still warm engine block. I swear if people had packed them, they would be getting into drysuits...... break out the marshmallows whilst your there.

After a brief warming and a brief briefing, Kelly's Caverns were next on the agenda. With some nice shoals of sweetlips and grunts to cruise through as we wormed our way in and out of the cuts, there was some nice macro stuff to find, mind you there's always nice macro stuff to find if you look hard enough with some lovely gobies, blennies and hermit crabs.

There was also a flatworm bombing across the reef at high speeds. I couldn't identify it in any of my books and it has been suggested it may be some sort of bi coloured flatworm. If anyone else out there knows any better, I'm open to any suggestions.

And with that we leave you with the final shot of the day. SMILE!!!!

Fisherman's blues

And once more unto the breach with a visit to the East End which has been lacking for the last couple of months due to the holiday season and being very busy.

Conditions were excellent today, with a 4-5 knots SSE and pretty decent vis. I got outvoted at this point as I wanted something scenic but everyone else wanted sharks, so that was that. Tanja and Jonatan were able to get some time off to join us and JB was there as well to cause general chaos and mayhem.

Captain James whisked us off to the Maze first off and it didn't take long before we had a male and female reef shark join us. One curious thing I noticed was some writing on a secondary buoy on the mooring pin. I have no idea what it could mean.......

Scenery wise it was ok, but wasn't particularly abundant for the stuff that would make some awesome jaw dropping stuff and all that jazz.

There was also some lionfish hanging around which were swiftly dispatched by Captain James and his spear of maleficence.

We headed North a little ways to check out Black Rock reef for dive number two and we found some lovely little elysia crispata, blennies, gobies and wrasse.

After a brief pit stop at 19 metres, I found a lovely little little gaudy clown crab. I love the colours on these as they are very striking and really stand out against the back drop of the reef.

Not bad for the first boat dive of 2016, with many more to come. Still getting there with the new camera but getting a little better all the time.

Garden Party

Another visitor, another trip to the botanical gardens. I love going here, just to have some peace and quiet, just me and my camera having a play around...........