Murky Pink Beach Reef

21/4/2017 (618)

It was a long swim over the areas where flat rocky platforms mix with sand. It was also a swim in quite a murky water. Actually I don’t remember such a dirty water at Goat Island. Once I got to the deeper water with kelp forest, the visibility improved, but not much. And by the way the sky was covered with heavy clouds so it was very dark underwater. The fish life was usual: plenty of snapper, red moki, spotties and other wrasse species, schools of jack mackerel and juvenile trevally, kelpfish, leatherjacket. As a bonus I met a not-so-patient eagle ray, lonely kingfish and some big drummers.

Sponges started to be plentiful in about 8 m … mostly yellow nipple sponges, then those big grey ones. I missed the orange finger sponges, but I did not have enough time to go deeper. On my way back I spent some time on the meadows of brown weeds among red mokis and snappers.

Slovak

Bolo to dlhé plávanie ponad dno, kde sa skalnaté plošiny striedajú s pieskom. A bolo to dlhé plávanie v špinavej vode. Tuším, že som takú špinavú vodu pri Goat Island ešte nezažil. V hĺbke medzi chaluhami sa viditeľnosť zlepšila, ale nie oveľa. Navyše bolo zamračené, takže pod vodou bolo málo svetla. Rýb bolo ako zvyčajne: snapper, red moki, spotty a ďalšie druhy wrasse, stáda makriel a mladých trevally, kelpfish a leatherjacket (ako obyčajne, okrem makrely neviem mená preložiť). Ako bonus som stretol jednu raju (eagle ray), osamelú kingfish a niekoľko veľkých a tučných drummer.

Huby začali pribúdať v hĺbke asi 8 metrov … väčšinou žlté nipple sponges a tiež veľké tmavosivé. Chýbali mi oranžové s vetvami, ale nemal som dosť času plávať hlbšie (skončil som v 11 m). Cestou späť som sa na chvíľu zastavil nad pastvinami hnedých tráv, kde som fotil red moki a snapper.

Flat rocky platforms … partially covered with coarse sand so typical for Northland.

Eagle ray resting on flat bottom. It did not seem scared, however, after letting me to make this picture it took off and flew away.

Selfie in green water among kelp with some sponges on the foreground.

Yellow and dark grey sponges among kelp fronds.

Large sea urchin Centrostephanus rodgersii hiding in rock covered with pink coralline algae.

Dark grey sponge hiding under the canopy of Ecklonia radiata.

Red moki swimming above meadow of brown sea weeds.

Australasian snapper at rocky reef with growth of brown sea weed.