Shallow-water scouting and seaweed appreciating at Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary.
With Pirjo Haikola, Danni Zuvela and Scale Free Network.
WHERE: Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary, Victoria.
WHEN: Saturday 7 December
TIME: 11:00-16:00
* ALL WELCOME *
A day spent appreciating the wonders of a protected underwater world. Our art-science-design-diving adventure was informed by our communal knowledges, and fantastic research resources, including Ecology of Australian Temperate Reefs, and the Taxonomic Toolkit for the Marine Life of Port Philip Bay.
Together, we conducted action research within the unique habitat of the sanctuary – a crystal-clear universe of intertidal rock platforms, dotted with soft sandy bottoms and graceful, swaying seagrass meadows.
Our dives were spent observing many different local and some not-so-local seaweeds; investigating urchins; appreciating eelgrass; exploring the wrackline and generally communing with our non-human aquatic friends, ahead of the following day’s Seaweed as Collaborator event in Melbourne.
Notable interspecies encounters included friendly stingrays; cute toadfish; spiky sea urchins; and fields of those majestic blue-carbon-capturers, Zostera muelleri (seagrass/eelgrass).
We enjoyed meeting new seaweed enthusiast friends, sharing a yarn with and hearing sea-wisdom from legendary ocean elder Bob Whiteway from the Marine Care Ricketts Point gang – including some lively discussions about the local doings of non-local wakame – and promised to return.
“The underwater interest at Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary is considerable. Sandstone rock platforms extend from the shore, supporting a great diversity of flora and fauna. It is characterised by extensive sandstone intertidal platforms, subtidal reef, soft substrate, sand and seagrass habitats. There are secluded caverns and under-rock ledges hosting colourful sponge gardens. Fifty-one species of fish have been identified in the Sanctuary, the most common being southern hulafish, zebra fish, dusky morwongs, moonlighters and Australian sweep. The Sanctuary is also home to smaller and less mobile animals including abalone, winkles, sea urchins, brittle stars, sea stars and crabs. Crucial to this rich marine eco-system are the algae, seaweeds and seagrass meadows which provide a beautiful palette of verdant green, red and brown. The majority of the area is shallow water of less than five metres, providing an easily accessible recreational area for snorkelling and diving.” — Marine Care Ricketts Point
