Where there be Dragons

By Jane Wilkinson on 13 February 2006

Emerging from the tendrils of green, a tangle of weed slowly took shape. Suddenly fronds of foliage became more alive, a weedy sea dragon ascended from its hiding place, its perfect camouflage betrayed by its movement.

Sea dragons, which are unique to Australia, sat near the top of my list of ‘things I wanted to see’ whilst diving in the clear warm waters surrounding this incredible place.

I had done my homework in preparation, trawling through reviews and trip reports on a variety of web sites and forums in order to draw up a list of dive operators who would give me the best chance of catching a glimpse of these fantastic creatures.

My first sighting of Weedy Sea Dragons was Jervis Bay, New South Wales. It was early in the season so there was plenty of room on the boat and I was buddied up with fellow Brit, Peter, who was an experienced BSAC diver.

After losing the dive guide on the first dive he let the two of us go off exploring on our own on the second dive. It was on this dive we found Dragons.

Weedy Sea Dragons are much more common than ‘Leafys’ and they are often referred to as Common Sea Dragons.

Weedy dragons differ in colour and texture to reflect their environment and as such can be aptly described as chameleons of the Sea. It is this adaptation to individual environments allows the Dragons to survive and flourish within their niche, where otherwise predators would devour these defenceless animals.

Sea dragons are close relatives of Sea Horses and Pipefish but are larger, growing up to 45cm and have leaf like appendages that gracefully float around them as they move through the water. So good is their camouflage that they can be quite difficult to see the first time you hunt for them, however once you have seen one your eye develops and you can suddenly spot them easily amongst the swaying weed.

Into the blue

A few weeks later I drove down the hot, dusty roads to the Mornington Peninsular. I had arranged to meet my buddies on what turned out to be a still, cloudless, morning down by the Pier. The smell of cooler, salty air greeted me as I drove into the car park, the water gently lapping the stout wooden legs of the pier in the pale blue light. I had forgotten to check out the times of the tides but it didn’t really matter our air probably lasted longer as it was only about 4-5 meters and we had a dive time of 91minutes.

On entering the calm still waters we were greeted by some superb wildlife, the dark majestic shape of a bull ray go gliding along the pier taking my breath away. However, most of the time I just sat watching the Weedy Sea Dragons going about their lives, hardly noticing my awed presence.

Sea Dragons tend to be solitary animals, although I observed around five males in an area of less than a square metre at the end of Flinders Pier. All five were carrying a large mass of eggs and it seemed like a nursery.

The breeding season is August through to March and during this time they will brood two batches of eggs. During mating the females deposit up to 250 eggs onto the specially adapted brood patch on the males tail. After about 8 weeks these hatch spending a few more days in the yolk sac of the egg where they continue to be nourished. However, only about 5% of these tiny animals will actually survive to maturity. Both types of Dragon grow to about 45cm, which is surprisingly large for such a delicate creature.

Continuing my Quest

I drove onward, along the Great Ocean Road pausing briefly in Mount Gambier, wishing I was cave qualified because of the fabulous freshwater cave sites they have, and then on to Normanville on the Fleurieu Peninsular.

Lots of coverage is given to Leafy Sea Dragons being on sites round Kangaroo Island and the outfit running the dive operation there will guarantee sightings.

Chatting with a local dive shop owner it emerged that it is comparatively easy to find the Dragons at the site known as Rapid Bay Jetty. Grabbing a pen and a scrap of paper from the desk in the shop, he sketched out where I was most likely to find Dragons around the legs of the jetty, whetting my appetite to get into the clear waters and search for my subjects.

So it was here that I did my first solo dives. Now whether you agree with solo diving or not is beside the point. The thing was I was on my own; I could have paid for a guide? To dive a jetty? Now my navigation is pretty awful but even I can manage a jetty!

So after hiring a tank I set off down to Rapid Bay, forgetting of course that I was diving in a dry suit and had no one to zip me up. Naturally it’s a very popular dive site and the dive shop staff had said some other divers were going to be down later.

Finding myself utterly alone in the car park with no one in sight, I decided to ask the old guy who was fishing on the jetty to zip me into my drysuit. He turned out to be one of the gang who had helped to build that particular jetty. When he knew I was diving he then proceeded to regale me with tales of how they used to watch the white pointers, otherwise known as the great white shark, in the bays whilst they were building the jetties and on one particular occasion how they watched whilst one of these sharks was caught which had been attacking swimmers.

This is not really what one wants to hear just before a dive and I did wonder how much was actually true and how much he was winding me up, however I tried to reassure myself that this had happened many years before and I was going to be staying well under the jetty – not a place where a great white would likely to be prowling around (I hoped!).

Entry was down the beach that was perilous to the unbalanced diver, steep and rocky. I had already taken my fins, mask and camera down and placed them ready by the waters edge. The dark rocks were slippery with wet and slimy green weed and I was terrified I was going to fall and smash my camera. I gave up and finally shuffled forwards on my backside over the rocks, incredibly difficult when your tank keeps catching on things, holding my camera in my lap for protection until I was able to roll over and float.

I had a fabulous dive of 76 minutes and then did the same again the following day but with a longer time of 92 minutes. I spent most of the dives between 6-9 metres, which is where the sea dragons seemed most plentiful.

Unique Animals

It was a fantastic experience watching these creatures. They do not have the gripping prehensile tail for hanging onto weed etc like a Sea Horse, rather it is thought they may use their tails for steering. However, most of this is done by the rapidly oscillating translucent fins, which you have to look very hard to see along the spine and just below the head. These fins propel them through the water and it is surprising how speedily they can move, particularly when you are trying to photograph them. Almost as soon as you bring the camera up they will turn away. The males with the eggs were particularly very quick to do this. The stiff dermal plates surrounding their bodies inhibit their mobility and their bodies seem to hardly move at all.

I was lucky enough to watch one for some time feeding making jerky little movements with its head as it floated around directing its long mouth at practically invisible morsels of food. Sea dragons have no teeth but intricate system of bones and muscles in their pipe like mouth, which they use to suck in food that consists of mysid shrimp, sea lice and larval fish.

Sea dragons are unique to the southern waters of Australia, their homes being inshore areas of weed and sea grass. Unfortunately these are under increasing threat from pollution and excessive fertiliser run-off. Demand for aquarium specimens also threatened the species with extinction. There was so much concern about the rapidly decreasing number of Leafy Sea Dragons that early in the 90s it was declared a totally protected species. There are only a handful of aquaria round the world that are legally allowed to keep sea dragons and do so successfully. Many amateurs have tried unsuccessfully to keep Sea Dragons, which usually die quickly due to the captor’s inability to provide them with the correct diet.

The Leafy Sea Dragon has become a treasured marine animal in Australia. Because of this it is used as a marine emblem and you will see it frequently when travelling round the country. I feel that I have been very privileged to have the chance to see and photograph these creatures.

The memory of being suspended in the clear waters, only my heartbeat and breathing providing the perfect soundtrack to the graceful elegant animals, observing them in their natural habitat will stay with me for a very long time.

Author Info

Jane Wilkinson, YDr and a former teacher, learned to dive in July 2002 and is currently studying hard for her Dive Master qualification. She has dived all over the world, including the UK, Red Sea, New Zealand and of course Australia. She has just returned from an 8 month globe trotting trip visiting far flung places and enjoying the wildlife.

Contact

Author: Jane Wilkinson
Email: info@travel-dive.com

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