There dives the fur seal A sleek speeding bullet Quick as a flash he twists and he soars Snapping at fish with sharp toothy jaws Today’s entry is all about the New Zealand fur seal, an occasional visitor to Coral Bay; one that turns up during the colder winter months when storms down south send it scurrying northwards. The New Zealand fur seal, not surprisingly, is found mainly around New Zealand, but it also lives along the south coast of Australia, and occasionally visits the warmer waters of north-western or north-eastern Australia. A male fur seal looks a lot like a [View Full Entry]

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A shark is a fish with really big teeth. They’ll eat you whole head, hands, and feet. When there hungry they’ll track you down. They’ll sniff you out like a blood- hound. Adrian C. I want you to close your eyes. Imagine you are swimming in water of the deepest navy, with empty blue space stretching as far as the eye can see. Beams of light dance down from above. Suddenly a reflection catches your eye and out of the darkness below, a shape starts to materialize. It is a dark grey fish of epic proportions, stretching over 12m in length [View Full Entry]

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A lobster from the water came, And saw another, just the same In form and size, but gaily clad In scarlet clothing, while she had No other raiment to her back, Than her old suit of greenish black. Miss Gould Spiny lobsters belong to a group or ‘genus’ named Panulirus by scientists, after a mythical seaman who fell off his boat, was killed by a band of ferocious Italians, and his spirit forced to wander the shallows forever. They are slightly different to the lobsters we find in the seas around the UK or on plates at your local restaurant; they [View Full Entry]

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Today I touched the buffalobster and the goldfishark, the eagleopard, ocelotter, and the weaselark. Ken Nesbitt The underwater circus theme is continuing in this blog entry; last week I talked about acrobatic manta rays, this time I am looking at the tiny clowns of the sea; the spectacular nudibranchs! ‘Nudibranch’…the word sounds exotic and strange, but if you translate it into English, it actually means ‘naked gill’. This creature possesses thin tufts that stick up from its back. These tufts act as gills, free to waft around unprotected in th [View Full Entry]

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Soaring on wings that cannot fly scouring the sand for life drifting over beds where treasures lie living below the worldly strife Michael R. Ault In days gone by, mariners sailing the high seas caught sight of strange bat-like creatures flying through the water. These monsters reached up to 6m from wing-tip to wing-tip and their heads were topped with a pair of giant black or grey horns. The superstitious sailors named them ‘devil rays’ and steered well clear. Today divers and snorkellers travel half way round the world to swim with these majestic creatures, whi [View Full Entry]

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Well I am back in Australia and this is the start of a new series on the marine and land based creatures of this amazing continent, and in particular of the beautiful Coral Bay on the Ningaloo Reef. Enjoy... [View Full Entry]

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The Wombat said to the Kangaroo "Gooday my friend, and how are you?" "I'm glad you asked" said the Kangaroo "I'm sitting here wondering what to do". "I've lost me jump and got the hump, So I can't be a Kangaroo Boo Hoo". Mick Leigh Elephants are lovely guys, They're good and true and tell no lies. They don't take more than they can eat, And always watch where they put their feet. Wayne Hepburn Imagine catching a ferry to France; you leave England with the familiar call of robins and song-thrushes, and the rustling of rabbits in hedgerows echoing in [View Full Entry]

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Is anyone out there or does no one care? The bribes nourish nothing but disgust and despair. Pongo Pygmaeus may soon disappear, From Sumatra and Borneo without even a tear. D. Noss Jr This week I am departing slightly from the marine theme to introduce you to one of our closer animal cousins: the Orangutan. This primate is found only in the jungles of Borneo and northern Sumatra, in the countries of Malaysia and Indonesia, although its range once stretched all the way to China. Orangutan means ‘man of the forest’, an apt title for a beast so human-like, yet so [View Full Entry]

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Today the dolphins came to play I watched them jump for joy It seemed just then, they were wise old men and I, a foolish boy Wayne Marshal Greek mythology tells the story of a group of pirates that were thrown into the ocean by the god Dionysus. They were rescued from a watery grave by Poseidon who changed them into dolphins and made them eternal slaves to the human race. Now imagine a cow. It’s swimming through the water, hooves thrashing wildly, head struggling to stay above the water, eyes wide and panicky. This is an animal happy solely when [View Full Entry]

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A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters rave, And the winds their revels keep Epes Sargent Flying Fish The open ocean is a bottomless depth of the deepest blue. The landscape is featureless: no rocks, no waving forests of seaweed, and no handy crevices to hide in if you are being chased by a ferocious predator with gnashing teeth. Dark, navy water stretches as far as the eye can see, a unique, empty, 3-dimensional environment. To stay one step ahead of the game in these stark conditions requires the ability to adapt [View Full Entry]

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