2macstracks

Brighton to Seacliff

These are both lovely South Australian beaches and very close to home, we’ve been there hundreds of times so why bother blogging about them now? The reason is an algal bloom which started near Victor Harbor in March this year and has had a devastating impact on sea creatures all the way up the coast. On Sunday, 27th July my grandson and I decided to check out the state of the beaches for ourselves and the impact was immediately obvious. We started from the Brighton Surf Life Savers’ tower and walked south towards Seacliff, in no time at all we’d counted 100 Bluefin Leatherjackets. I’m not familiar with fish names so have used iNaturalist to help me identify them, I hope I have the right names.

Initially we didn’t any evidence of the algae but then we came across areas where the horrible murky foam had accumulated.

There were a lot of what we think were Puffer Fish.

I felt conflicted because the devastation was obvious but at the same time we were seeing creatures we had never seen before and it was exciting finding them. Fish with names like Weed Whiting, Tubefish and Pipefish.

We were also surprised to find seahorses or Weedy Seadragons, we would never have expected that they were swimming around just off Brighton beach.

We saw a lot of long fish minus their heads so something was making a meal of them. Although most people have been avoiding eating fish, even from the Fish and Chip shops, there is apparently no danger in eating freshly caught fish. I think it’s unlikely though that there would be many caught off Brighton jetty at the moment.

There were so many fish we’d never seen before as well as a few familiar looking ones.

I would like to think a storm will come and blow all the algae away, creatures will move into the area and everything will return to the way it was but only time will tell.