31 Jul, 2007

In buffeting waters and against a stark backdrop of huge rocks and sandy gullies, a large green coral tree shelters small fry within its branches

Arriving at the beach this morning near Scottburgh, a small town on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast, I was dismayed to see some really big swells drifting in from far out to sea. This must have been the result of some very rough seas far out past the horizon and what we were experiencing was the ripple effect of this disturbance. Happily Baasie, our skipper, has never been afraid of a swell, and he negotiated the huge waves expertly.

After kitting up and plunging in, I was escorted to the bottom by a fairly large blackfin - or blacktip - shark which, after about a minute, lost interest and headed off into the blue.

At the bottom I was surprised to see that the big swell was having an effect even down here at 27m, kicking up a lot of silt and suspension and making filming somewhat of a to-and-fro operation.

The reef is dramatic here, with massive blocks of rock divided by deep cracks and sandy gullies. It’s mainly covered by algae and many soft corals and what I noticed particularly was the abundance of different sea ferns.

This is very different to the coral-covered sandstone reefs further north, so this is a novel addition to our growing dive site list.

After being buffeted about by the surge for 10 minutes or so, it dawned on me that there was a distinct lack of general fish life. With all the cracks and crevices in which to hide, one would think there would be a healthy reef-fish population here.

One of the fish I did see was a rare tiger angelfish, a small, timid fish with a golden striped upper body and a pale belly.  This fish was discovered relatively recently in 1984 by Dennis King, author of numerous South African fish identification books.

The highlight of this dive was a massive green coral tree which I found towards the end of the dive. The coral tree stood at least a metre off the reef and was teeming with bright orange goldies and small dominos.

These pretty little fish use the structure of the tree to hide from predators, and one can see the fish darting among the branches, the surge adding to their frenetic activity. It’s impressive is how sturdy these coral trees are, and how old they are, taking hundreds of years to reach this size and proportion.

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