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Published: July 12th 2020
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Having a view of the ocean from our little cabin, we ate breakfast on the little deck, drinking our coffee while drinking in the view of the turquoise ocean. If it wasn't for the cold, one would have thought we were somewhere tropical.
A check that we had all of our gear and we were off for a short 20 minute drive to Point Lowly, the main spot where groups of people from all around the world come to snorkel and scuba dive to see the giant cuttlefish gather in the largest quantities in the world to spawn. Now to clarify, the male giant cuttlefish can reach up to 1 metre long and weigh around 6kg. I had mentioned I was swimming with giant cuttlefish to a friend who was horrified, assuming that they were gigantic sea creatures of more than 5 metres that may swallow me whole. Although that was an amusing thought to die from being eaten from a cuttlefish as they are carnivorous, A) they are not that big and B) they were there to mate and I am sure couldn't give a toss about me or anyone else. It did seem a bit pervy though that
the whole reason we were there was to watch them..mate..
The cuttlefish were only a few metres out from the shore and the Point Lowly location has a chain link rope that allows snorkelers to walk down the flat rocks to float easily into the waters, with the cuttlefish in a depth of 2 to 5 metres. The water clarity was amazing and within a minute, cuttlefish were spotted everywhere you look. It is believed that during the three months of the mating season approximately 200000 cuttlefish come here to spawn.
It was Kym's first time wearing his 5mm wetsuit and he was surprised on how warm it kept him in the 13 degree ocean temperature. We had our own wetsuits, however people could book in with one of the snorkeling groups and hire was included in the guided tour. We saw young children there joining in on the family fun.
The male cuttlefish we observed were bigger than the females and they put on a display for them. During the mating, the males changed colour and we could often see a blue bioluminescence look as many of them glowed, showing off to win the hearts and
eggs of the females. They were protective of their chosen females and would fight other males if they tried to move in. Each cuttlefish had different markings and it was amazing to see the differences as well as the displays each one was giving their female companions. They did not seem too bothered about the people floating above them. I tried to dive down to get a closer look, unfortunately, although I was wearing my weight belt, which I used without a wetsuit and could duck dive easily, the wetsuit was so buoyant that everytime I dived down, I was brought back up again backwards within a couple of seconds. Even wearing my monofin (yes, I did this in a mermaid tail) I couldn't get propulsion to get very far down for very long. Not that it mattered with some of the areas we were in being only 2 metres deep but it would have been good to get closer to take photos.
Kym and I were out there for around an hour and a half before deciding we had enough film and photos of these majestic creatures. Point Lowly has change facilities, so it was easy enough to
strip off and change into our robes before heading home.
We had a hankering for tuna steaks, mainly because the last time we were in Whyalla around 10 years ago we had the best tuna steaks we had ever had. The check of every menu from every pub, restaurant and cafe brought up just the one venue and the price was a little much for our budget. We found one wholesaler but by the time we got there, they had shut (3.30pm). We were surprised, thinking that it would have been easy to find fresh fish in Whyalla and in the end settled for some frozen tuna steaks to cook back at the campsite from Coles.
The rain had moved in by that stage so a night in the cabin was inorder and to be honest the hour and a half spent snorkelling had exhausted us.
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