Animals of NW Island
Underwater creatures
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Dolphins
There are lots of dolphins around. In July there were
always a few of them playing around off the reef north of
the island, clearly visible from shore. Whenever we took
the big boat out there would be a bunch of them playing
in the bow wave. They were pretty cautious though and
Lyndal was the only person who managed to get close to
them underwater (holding on to the side of a boat they
were playing with). In the summer they were slightly less
abundant but you still saw them sometimes.
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Turtles (Look at a
loggerhead turtle.)
NW Island is a major hatching ground for many turtle species
and watching the turtles laying their eggs is one of the
main reasons why people come there. It is truly a fantastic
sight; if the tide is high enough they start crawling out of
the ocean just after dusk. It's obviously very cumbersome for
them to move on land and with an enormous effort they slowly
make their way up the beach to above the high tide mark and
start digging a hole for their eggs. You can hear them panting
the whole time. After several hours when their eggs are laid
and the hole covered they make their way back to the ocean.
In the period late November to mid January there are scores
of them doing this every night, leaving the beach covered
with tracks the next morning. Then in January the eggs begin
hatching. This is even neater to watch. All of a sudden (in
the night) the beach gets covered with hundreds and hundreds of
tiny replicas of the big turtles, all hobbling towards the
ocean. They're attracted to light so you have to use lights
very sparingly in the camp at night unless you want to attract
legions of babyturtles (and thus decreasing their chances of
survival). This march towards the ocean is not only cute though,
apart from the humans and the turtles everybody else on the
island, the sharks, the seabirds, the big fish, see this as
an enourmous feast and makes the most of it.
You often see the turtles in the water as well. They look
really funny, with their big shells and small feet sticking
out, slowly propelling them forwards. If you're freediving
it is definitely possible to keep up with them. Don't hang
on to them though since they find this extremely stressful
and might even drown because they run out of air trying to
get away.
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Manta rays
On the January we were lucky enough to have lots of manta
rays around the island. Few people got close to them underwater
but we always saw them from the boats, sometimes feeding on
the reef flat at high tide, sometimes just dozing on the surface
way off shore, sometimes jumping. None of the ones we saw was
really huge but with a couple of meters between the
wing tips they were big enough for me. My neatest manta
experience happened once when I was scurfing on the southern
side of the island at high tide. We had spotted a big female
hunting garfish (this is clearly visible since the garfish
jump in front of her to get away) earlier and all of a sudden
there she was, right next to the surfboard ! She stayed right
next to the board in 15 knots or so for a couple of seconds
and then veered off.
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Eagle Rays
I think these are my favourite rays. In December there was
a group of three of them who always came up to me when I was
spearing off the channel marker. Their heads look like
dolpinheads with a couple of cunning eyes. With a couple of
spotted wings and a ling thin tail, pointing right up they
moved graciously seemingly without moving at all, always
reminding me of the aliens in "the Abyss". They would slowly
come closer until all of a sudden they decided enough was
enough, flick their tails straight back and nick off.
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Stingrays
I've seen stingrays on almost every divesite I've visited
in Australia, NW Island is no exception. Usually found half
buried in sand some of the big ones are incredibly docile,
you can touch them and they still don't move, they just look
at you, looking a bit crossed.
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Shovelnose Rays
The first time I saw one of these I got a bit scared since
they look a little bit like a shark. They grow quite large,
the biggest ones are over 2 meters long. Being bottomfeeders
with almost no teeth they're harmless but can still scare
the shit out of you. There's stacks of them in the
water off the eastern tip at high tide and when you're spearing
in dirty water that you know is full of sharks and all of a
sudden a 2m shadow shoots past behind you it's definitely
enough to spook me.
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Bluespotted Rays
Very pretty animals, often found halfburied lying on the sand under
ledges and overhangs, look for the tail that slowly moves with
the current. Quite small, 30-60 com across.
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Eels
There are loads of eels on the reef, they mostly stay in
their crevices in the day. The best way to see them is to
tempt them with a slice of dead fish or wait until night.
Here is a pic of a
moray eel
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Fire- and lionfish
I never learnt to distinguish between the two but there are
a few around. Fascinating the first times you see them because
they are so unconcerned about your presence - beign very
poisonous I don't think they have any natural enemies.
Here are two pics:
one , and
two .
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Giant clams
Everyone has heard stories about giantclams closing around
someones legs and drowning them. I never saw one closing all
that fast but they sure are pretty watching. There are some
nice ones about 500m west of the channel marker.
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Tiger Shark
These aren't common but occasionally one is spotted around
the island. No scuba diver ever saw them, they usually keep
clear unless something atracts their interest, such as a
speared fish. In July there was one really big one, close to
4m hanging around which made spearing a bit less comfortable.
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Bronze- and
silver Whalers
Plukky says he saw these all the time but I only saw three
during seven weeks. They've got a bad rep but usually they
just want your fish.
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Black- and whitetip
Reef Sharks
These are absolutely abundant. Usually just cruising up
and down the reef edge they look menacing but really aren't
dangerous. A few times when I've shot a fish they've come
in to try to get their share but they always keep their
distance to you. The first time I lost a fish to a shark it
was a 4ft blacktip that was the culprit and although he had
no intention of getting closer to me than a couple of meters
it still scared the living daylights out of me.
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Leopard Shark
It's heaps fun walking on the reef flat at night when there's
about a foot of water there. You'll see loads of leopardsharks
scurrying away, almost walking with their fins, when you point
the torch on them. (They're very small, less than half a meter.)
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Cuttlefish
Not very common but very pretty, they change colours fast
as nothing. Someone told me they're edible but I could never
make myself catch one.
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Octopus
I just saw three or four of these fascinating animals, if
anyone knows anything about their habits and how to find
them I'd love to hear from you !
