Friday, September 18, 2015

Species List: La Balsa Park, Mooloolah River, Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, 17-09-2015

14 species sighted at La Balsa Park, Mooloolah River, Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Julie, Terry and David on this single shore entry dive of 138 minutes. Maximum depth 6.0 m, 21 C water temperature and 4 m viz.

River dives are just unpredictable. One has to share the confined water space with people casting from the shore, crabbers dropping nets, all manner of water craft - large, small, slow, fast, curious boaties motoring over to check out what the float with the funny flag is, kilometres of old and new fishing line, clouds of silt from dive buddies, stone fish waiting for a careless hand placement, the list goes on. However the rewards just keep turning up as well. This time it was a new species to our list - Siphopteron quadrispinosum, a tiny beautiful bubble shell trying to rebury itself in the silt. What a stunner and no less stunning was the rarely sighted Okenia liklik.

Number of species sighted
* Species with highest specimen count

Atys sp. 6   -1
Elysia cf. furvacauda   -2
Elysia sp. 11  -1
Gymnodoris alba    -1
Gymnodoris sp. 1   -3
Gymnodoris sp. 9   -4
Gymnodoris nigricolor   -1
Goniodoridella savignyi   -2
Goniodoridella sp. 1  -1
Hypselodoris obscura   -1
Okenia liklik   -1
Phyllodesmium opalescens   -2
Siphopteron quadrispinosum   -1 (New species)
* Unidentia angelvaldesi   -35

Surface conditions

Hypselodoris obscura

Unidentia angelvaldesi

Substrate

Elysia sp. 11 

Okenia liklik

Siphopteron quadrispinosum

Siphopteron quadrispinosum - in situ

Gymnodoris sp. 1

Phyllodesmium opalescens

Gymnodoris nigricolor

Atys sp. 6 

Gymnodoris sp. 9

Goniodoridella savignyi 

Elysia cf. furvacauda