On Sunday we went diving at Mornington, a smallish town and nameskae of the Mornington Peninsula. The coast there is pretty. Underwater, conditions were average. There was still a lot of suspended material in the water, maybe from the strong northerlies last week. We descended just close to stern of the enormous Skandia ‘Wild Thing’
, Winner of Line Honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2003, Overall Winner of Hamilton Island Race Week 2004 and China Coast Regatta 2004 etc., etc. She is 30m long with a draft of 5.2m, meaning that where she now sits she is only just clear of the bottom.
Close by, and almost up to the good diving spots, the silty flats were almost covered with the invading Northen Pacific Sea Star. These voracious predators eat everything in their path leaving the sea-floor barren behind them. They’ve been working their way across the bay since their arrival some time ago in (probably) ballast water or fishing nets. In places they were so thick that hardly anything else was visible.