rottnest island - low tide in thomson bay

8/8/2019 Rottnest Island - Low Tide in Thomson Bay

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8/10/10 6:58 AMFremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Friday, October 8th, 2010

Time Event

6:52a Rottnest Island - Low tide in Thomson Bay

Fisher persons at the southern end of Thomson Bay this week

The pic above shows eager anglers trying to catch fish that werent there. Thomson Bay no longer provides the unlimitedquantities of fish that it used to. Its a similar story around the island. Alas, the few sanctuary zones that have been

gazetted seem to be failing to protect the marine biodiversity that used to be. Its not only the decline of fish populationsbut of the invertebrates - the molluscs, anemones, sea urchins and all the other creatures that were once common on theshallow limestone reef platforms are now pretty well absent. Its been a catastrophe that few people seem to haverecognised.

For a couple of years weve been collecting and pressing specimens of seagrass weve found washed up on the northern

corner of Thomson Bay. Weve been able to identify a few of them from Rippey and Rowlands field-guide CoastalPlants...; but there are numerous marine algae which also get washed up which weve yet to come to terms with.

A seagrass bed and some juvenile fish of an indeterminate species in Thomson Bay

At low tide yesterday afternoon we took a look at the sheltered northern end of the bay. There were maybe about a dozen

types of grasses and algae I saw growing on the shallow platforms and quite a few mussels, but other types of smallmolluscs Id expected to see werent there. Small fish were also very scarce. I did see one school of nervous pinhead sizedhatchlings and Kylie photographed the larger sprats shown above. But they were the only fish we saw in the warm

shallows during about two hours of looking. Also absent were the once common orange and black rock crabs that used toscuttle above the waterline.

Jill and I have long been fascinated by colour patterning in apparent chaotic settings. Ive mentioned these previouslyduring our Rottnest trips. Below are a couple more photos of this pleasing phenomena. The one on the left is of seaweeds

washed up on the shore of Thomson Bay yesterday. The second is a nearby cluster of tumbled limestone pebbles roundedby exposure to waves. But in this image of order there is evidence of disorder caused by human disregard for the naturalenvironment. The amber objects are fragments of broken beer-bottle glass.

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Chaotic patterns at Thomson Bay

A few moments ago as dawn was breaking I took the following photo of the northern end of Thomson Bay where we were

paddling about yesterday. You can see the skyscrapers of Perth on the horizon:

The sheltered northern end of Thomson Bay

Thankfully raw sewage is no longer discharged into the ocean just around the corner of this cove. The old cast ironpipework is still evident.

MMX Paul R. Weaver.

Please email the Fremantlebiz experience to a friend.

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Rottnest essays:

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have abrief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by

clicking them.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21stcentury Australia plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking towrite at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!
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rottnest island - low tide in thomson bay

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