• Tag Archives Isabella
  • Snorkelling in Isabella

    The water was very cold here (18C) and a 3 mm wetsuit was still not enough to keep warm. The current that brought the penguins up from Antarctica brings the cold water with it. Although with the cold water you see different species than in the warmer water of the east.

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    Again there were large schools of fish. P2030147There were a few bright blue starfish as well but it was rather cold to dive down to them. P2030150

    As you’ve seen before there were flightless comerants hunting for fish. Here we actually saw one under the water. It moved so quick we only got a couple pictures as it passed right by us.

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    You can see its large legs are what is propelling it through the water.

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    There were a number of sea cucumbers, these happen to be the easiest to spot with their bright coloured spots.

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    These urchins looked really neat as you looked close they had bright blues and greens close to the bodies.

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    A sea turtle came in for a visit.

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    Not sure what lives in this hole but I wasn’t about to go poking about.

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    This is actually a sea star, but instead of 5 legs it has more than 30.

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    Matt’s second highlight of snorkelling that day was finding a seahorse. It was hiding amongst the sea grasses and was spotted as the currents rocked everything back and forth.

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    We also saw a few green urchins, although this one seemed to be missing a few spines.

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    In addition to all the previous visitors we had a sea lion join us in the cold water.

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    It never did grab a fish, just chased the school around a bit.

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    There are several different colours of starfish and here you can see the main ones that we saw the most of.

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    Another seahorse holding on against the current. Maybe I just got lucky but no one else in the group found one.

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    Very briefly one penguin came down for a swim but was just passing by. They too move quite quick, although with their wings not their feet.

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    This turtle seemed to be the most popular one around as it was being followed by so many fish cleaning its shell off.

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    These two were left alone and could much on all the sea grass they wanted.

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    Occasionally I would dive down to check out under the rocks and one time this little sting ray was hanging out. Our next snorkelling adventures were thankfully in warmer water as 18-22C is quite chilly. 

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