Sunday, August 20, 2017

Species List: 19-08-17, La Balsa Park, Mooloolah River, Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast

11 species sighted at La Balsa Park, Mooloolah River, Mooloolaba, Sunshine Coast, Qld 19-08-2017.

A single shore entry night dive by Terry, Julie and Gary of 100 minutes. Maximum depth 7m, 19 C water temperature and up to 5m viz.

In order to compare species diversity and abundance in relation to time of day, we opted to head into the river again tonight to see if we could find some different critters compared to the early dives. Unfortunately it was still dominated by the usual suspects, however the Dendrodoris fumata  was a nice find, as was the Pleurobranchus peronii  which has been scarce recently. The water temperature was 19 C, the air temperature was 19 C and the wind chill factor felt like -18 C on exiting the water and people wonder why we wear drysuits!

Number of species sighted
* Species with the highest specimen count

Atys semistriatus - 1
Cratena lineata - 4
Dendrodoris fumata - 1
Eubranchus sp. 10 - 3
Flabellina angelvaldesi - 1
*Flabellina rubrolineata - 11
Goniodoridella sp. 1 - 8
Hypselodoris kanga - 1
Hypselodoris obscura - 3
Hypselodoris zephyra - 1
Pleurobranchus peronii - 1

 Flabellina rubrolineata

 Atys semistriatus

 Pleurobranchus peronii

 The river at dusk

 Goniodoridella sp. 1

 Flabellina angelvaldesi

 Cratena lineata

 Dendrodoris fumata

 Eubranchus sp. 10
 Hypselodoris kanga

 Hypselodoris zephyra

Hypselodoris obscura