Spring 2020

As of today, 7 October 2020, the project has garnered 2737 observations of at least 423 species. Some of those that have caught my eye recently have been of:

Although looking decidedly worse for wear the elephant fish egg case is of interest to me because it implies this species is breeding within at least part of the marine reserve. I have seen egg cases of this species previously off Seatoun and Eastbourne but a quick scan of the records on iNat shows egg cases scattered throughout the outer part of the harbour, including Oriental Bay, and along the south coast as far west as Owhiro Bay. This species usually deposits its eggs in pairs on soft sediments from a few metres depth down to at least 12 m. The south coast iNat records are clustered in Owhiro Bay and Lyall Bay but its possible eggs are being laid on any suitable substrate from 3-12 m depth between these locations. So next time you swimming over sand, mud, gravel or a red algal meadow keep an eye out for them. The eggs are laid from spring to autumn and take at least 6 months to hatch depending on water temperature. They are golden brown (kelp coloured) when fresh but turn black with age.

Posted on October 6, 2020 07:51 PM by clinton clinton

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Great post - thanks!

Posted by dougalt over 3 years ago

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