An Australian Wildlife Addict: Good luck Demi

It was with a heavy heart I clicked open my internet browser late in February and discovered that my first ever tracked sea turtle had stopped transmitting. What an adventure she had! From her tracks over the 189 days of transmission it appears that she spent little time (about 16 days) in NSW waters where she was released from rehabilitation, but then clearly made a bee-line to the Chesterfield reefs.

The Chesterfield archipelago is "right in the middle of precisely nowhere" as one savvy blogger put it, and a haven for seabirds... and maybe hawksbill sea turtles. After the grieving subsided I concluded that she had ended up in a pretty good place, as far from human impact as she could possible get in this puddle and the Chesterfield reefs have crept up my Bucket List. The video below shows some of the incredible life above the sea level and a fabulously squirmy scene where an eel eats a crab!

Back over on the western side of the ditch though, in the Cape Byron Marine Park, I ventured out today to do a sea turtle survey at Nguthungulli (Julian Rocks). The visibility had dropped to 10m (yes, I'm a spoilt brat), but the turtle action didn't disappoint. From the vessel my faithful buddy and I ventured along a transect along the mooring buoys seaward. I could only 'just' see the bottom but there were no turtles out there anyway. We ventured in towards the rocks and into the turtle trench where you're almost guaranteed a sighting. Sure enough I see a repeat customer making its way out of the bubbly haze. Medium-sized Green sea turtle, old barnacle scar on the fourth (posterior) costal scute, starboard side.

There was too much surge in there so we turned about and headed out to some of the rocky trenches, and there it was... the turtle everyone had been sighting but I had not seen myself, the hawksbill K24268! (I promise to find a new name, I also promise to be kind to those who accuse me of anthropomorphising). My heart nearly exploded! There they were, all three tags, a little grown over but I was able to zoom in for a confirming shot. Actually, I had to take a couple of shots because my first attempt at taking a clear shot of the tag in the 'armpit' of the right flipper was photobombed by a moon wrasse.

If one hawksbill wasn't enough excitement for the day, just over the rocky ledge on the other side of the cruising leopard sharks I ran into this beauty too. No tags it this fella though!

Schools of brightly coloured fish swarmed through the crevices flashing silvers, yellows and purples. The leopard sharks weren't sleeping on the bottom this time, they were cruising around the rocky shelfs freaking me out a little to be honest. Ha! In their place on the sandy floor were dozens of stingrays and on the rocky wall nearby a bright blue sea star was unmistakable. All in all another awesome snorkel in Byron Bay's local marine park!

Good luck Demi - Hello K24268