South West Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness

South West Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness
The Naturalist in her habitat

Monday 11 July 2016

Australian East Coast Cruise

The chance to help sail a yacht from Sydney to the Whitsunday Islands over a few weeks of early winter seemed like a great way to escape from the short days of Tassie's winter.  I don't usually mind winter at all, hiking in the snow, clear crisp cold weather.  But it was wonderful to be warm and go snorkeling as often as possible.  It has been a while since I tried to identify tropical fishes on a coral reef and it took some practice.  Each snorkel meant that I came back with my head full of mental notes like, "some sort of butterflyfish with diagonal stripes - black and white; a wrasse with an orange beak-like snout; a bunch of little white guys with yellow quarters on the front."  Usually I would forget some salient point that would not allow me to identify very many fish.  But after many, many times in the water I had a few named and even fewer memorized.  But it was a great distraction and if I can't name them all, at least I have a great appreciation for the diversity!  A few illustrations:



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