Where there be dragons! - The Leafy Sea Dragons of South Australia
The Quest
Sea dragons, which are unique to Australia, sat at the top of the list of ‘things I wanted to see’ on my trip round this vast country. I had done my homework before going, trawling through reviews and trip reports on web sites and forums. Finally I had drawn up a list of dive sites where I would have the best chance of catching a glimpse of these fantastic creatures. Weedy Sea Dragons are much more common than ‘Leafys’ and are frequently referred to as Common Sea Dragons. They often differ in colour and texture to reflect their home environment providing themselves with excellent camouflage against predators as they propel themselves through their underwater environment. Sea dragons are close relatives of Sea Horses and Pipefish but are larger, growing up to 45cm. The leafy variety 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 they become easier to spot amongst the swaying weed.
My first sighting of Weedy Sea Dragons however was Jervis Bay, New South Wales. They are frequently seen here and in the waters round this part of Australia. Slowly fining along we had been told that some had been seen only the day before and sure enough there hanging amongst the swaying weed was an adult male complete with a tail full of eggs.
After spending some time watching we moved off in search of more. Our luck was in as we came across one or two more just hanging and swaying with the weed. Their camouflage made them almost impossible to see until they moved off propelling themselves across sandy beds with the rapidly oscillating translucent fins that were down their backs.
A few weeks later I drove down to Flinders Pier on the Mornington Peninsular. I had arranged to meet some divers I had spoken to at Jervis Bay and they had promised me large numbers of weedy sea dragons. It was a beautiful sunny spring day with hardly a cloud in the sky and the water was gently lapping the stout wooden legs of the pier as I drove into the car park. As we gradually made our way out under the pier and descended I could see that this was going to be a fabulous dive.
The sunshine penetrating the clear water made the light dance in patterns over the sponges and ascidians that grew in profusion over the pier legs. My attention was soon taken by the Weedy Sea Dragons busily going about their lives, hardly seeming to notice my presence as I sat watching them.
Briefly distracted I watched a huge bull ray flap its way languidly past the length of the pier before I moved on towards the end of the pier and found to my amusement what seemed to be a nursery!Sea Dragons tend to be solitary animals giving each other plenty of personal space, but I observed around five males in an area of less than a square metre at the end of the pier, all five were carrying a large mass of eggs.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 can grow to about 45cm, which is surprisingly large for such a delicate creature.Much as I had been thrilled to see the sea dragons of the weedy kind I still wanted to see the less common leafy sort. I had only ever seen photographs of them once but they still captured my imagination and I was determined not to leave Australia until I had achieved my goal.
Continuing my Quest
I drove onward, along the Great Ocean Road to Normanville on the Fleurieu Peninsular. Lots of coverage is given to Leafy Sea Dragons being on sites round Kangaroo Island and the dive operation there will guarantee sightings. However, you don’t even need to leave the mainland to see them. Chatting with a local dive shop owner in Normanville it emerged that it is comparatively easy to find ‘Leafys’ at Rapid Bay Jetty. Grabbing a pen and a scrap of paper, he sketched out where I was most likely to find the Dragons under the jetty. After hiring a tank I then set off down to Rapid Bay elated that I was another step nearer my quarry.
I had forgotten of course that I was diving in a dry suit and had no one to zip me up. The majority of people are under the misapprehension that Australia is always hot everywhere all year, it isn’t! Although by UK standards the water was warm at about 16 degrees, it turned out to be a long dive of well over an hour so I was glad of the added warmth of the dry suit. Even though the dive shop had said that there might be some other divers coming down later, I found myself utterly alone in the car park with no one around. Frustrated I decided to ask the old guy who was fishing off the jetty to zip me into my dry suit. He turned out to be one of the gang who had helped to build that particular jetty some years before. When he knew I was diving he then proceeded to regale me with tales of how they used o watch the white pointers, (great white shark), in the bays whilst they were building the jetties, vividly describing the scene when they had caught and killed a shark that been attacking swimmers in the bay. 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, or so I hoped.Entry was down the beach that was difficult for a diver carrying equipment, steep and rocky. The dark rocks were wet and slippery and I was terrified I was going to fall and smash my camera. Finally, I gave up and shuffled forwards on my backside over the rocks holding my camera in my lap for protection, incredibly difficult when your tank keeps catching on things, until I was able to roll over and float. I had finally made it into the water!
Unique Animals
Trying to conserve every breath of air I surface swam along the length of the pier towards the area where my quarry were most likely to be seen before descending into the world of the Leafy Sea Dragon. It was a fantastic experience watching these creatures. They do not have the gripping prehensile tail for hanging onto weed like a Sea Horse; rather it is thought they may use their tails for steering. They have rapidly oscillating translucent fins, which you have to look very hard to see along the spine and on their necks 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! The stiff dermal plates surrounding their bodies inhibit their mobility and their bodies seem to hardly move at all but almost as soon as you bring the camera up they will turn away. The males carrying the eggs were particularly very quick to do this.
For some time I was able to watch one feeding as it made jerky little movements with its delicate head, floating around and directing its long mouth at practically invisible morsels of food. Sea dragons have no teeth but an intricate system of bones and muscles in their pipe like mouth, which they use to suck in food consisting of mysid shrimp, sea lice and larval fish.
Leafy 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. In the past demand for aquarium specimens has 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. Now there are only a handful of aquaria round the world that are legally allowed to keep sea dragons. 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, particularly in the south. I feel that I have been very privileged to have the chance to see and photograph these creatures. I will never forget the thrill when I spotted my first ‘leafy’ and the memory of sitting and watching them will stay with me for a very long time
