The Battle of Rooney Point

 

Not long after we anchored near Rooney Point, with hardly another boat around, big schools of small fish gathered under our boat, sheltering in the new shade provided. 

A mob of crested terns were resting on the beach when they seemed to notice the fish around our boat.  The fish were venturing out in the open water to feed when the battle began:  Crested Terns vs Fish.  The terns seemed to be teaching their young how to catch the fish and chaos reigned for some time as they swooped and dived and called to each other with their rasping call.

Each day the fish would try to be brave and venture out but the terns were onto them and a new battle ensued.  So wonderful to watch nature at large.

Meanwhile our local green turtle just bobbed up every day to watch all the fuss, and a few dolphins cruised past, perhaps taking advantage of the opportunity for a feed too.

We were about to run our watermaker (desalinator) when Peter saw strings of jelly eggs floating past in the current.  What looked a bit like cane toad egg strings turned out to be very interesting animals: Salps.  Never even heard of them before!  

These creatures reproduce at such a rapid rate, they grow through two generations in one day, and such growth — up to 10 per cent of their body length per hour to be exact — requires an enormous food supply.

"You wouldn't believe how much these things eat," Dr Lisa Gershwin, A CSIRO scientist, said.

"So lets imagine that you're born at noon and by midnight you're already having babies and by noon tomorrow you're a grandparent."

She said the gelatinous creatures targeted phytoplankton and they digested that through their intestines, or the brownish-black dot.

"But anything that's small enough to get in their 'mucus net' can end up getting eaten.  They'll eat larvae and fish eggs but they're not targeting that, they're trying to find plant plankton."  (from an ABC News Report)

Now we have learnt a new animal!

Meanwhile, 8 arm sea stars were washed up along the beach, stranded by the tides.  They can regrow missing arms and move again...  Another animal to learn more about...

When the northerlies turned to easterlies the few other yachts that had anchored up at the point sailed away and we had the whole beach to ourselves ... bliss!  We kayaked to the beach for long walks each day and noticed that the pandanus and casuarinas were making a welcome recovery from last year’s fires.