On Thursday, November 28, 2002 8:56 AM, Chuck wrote:

>Strike, watch your ass (and other body parts) in the harbor.

>http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/11/26/australia.drought.reut/i
n
>dex.html

Mate!  Fortunately the viz has been crap in the harbour, so they can't see
me!!!!  :-))))

However - and not to waste a post - let me tell you what we saw on this
morning's dive at Shelly Beach.  :-)

Julian, Alan and myself fronted up at 07.00 - Janet's on her way back from a
liveaboard trip to the Rowley Shoals, out of Broome, in Western Australia -
for a morning dip.  Vi z has opened up a little from the week-end, to about
8-metres.  Julian asked us if we wanted to see the Painted Anglerfish that
he and Janet had discovered a week or so back.  We said, yes.  Navigating to
the spot where it had last been seen, we saw a small Stars & Stripes
Pufferfish, two Three-bar Porcupinefish, six or seven large wobbegongs, a
juvenile Port Jackson shark that measured about 45 cms, a Giant Cuttlefish,
a regular cuttlefish under a ledge that allowed us to touch its stubby
tentacles, a big octopus, a rather strange and colourful anemone that we've
still to identify, many different types of wrasse, leatherjackets and
gobies, and more nudibranchs than I've ever before seen in the area.  I've
managed to identify six different types, but one just isn't in the book at
all.  :-)

The Painted Anglerfish - a small, dusky-hued little critter with white
circles on it - was nestling between the tubular 'fingers' of a large
sponge.  We'd seen a number of rays and stingarees on the way out, but it
was on the way back that we bumped into the large Eagle Ray moving slowly
enough for us to follow for a while.  :-)

Fortunately, I read your post about the bull sharks after the dive!  :-)

Strike