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1 Fish, 2 Fish...Froggies!

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Rachael Howe

Day 2 | Rachael Howe | Wanneroo Primary School, Western Australia

We had another early start today, with alarms chirping all around camp at 5:15am. After a quick breakfast we joined the fish team (Dr Michael Hammer and Jenelle Ritchie) out at Lucky Bay for low tide. With waders on, we ventured out into the ocean with a huge net, scooping up all that we could find. Back on shore, we sorted carefully through the weeds for fish.

I have never been so amazed by fish before! Many of these species rest in a vertical position, mimicking seaweed to hide from predators. Some were vivid green (Long Nosed Weed Whiting), others looked like seaweed (Southern Crested Weed Fish) and some were so well camouflaged we could barely see them in the bucket.

Heading back to base camp for morning tea we were all energized by our discoveries. While we fuelled up on coffee and toast, the scientists were hard at work sorting and preserving the fish. We soon had some very excited scientists on our hands when they discovered we had two samples of the Earspot Blenny (Ophiclinops hutchinsi), a species that has never been found anywhere in the world other than Lucky Bay. Wow!

A short time later, the Crustacea team (Dr Michael Klunzinger and Ana Hara) took us out to a freshwater stream to look for mussels. Despite not actually finding any, we had a wonderful time trekking through bush, wading in the creek and getting down and dirty in the mud!


We were then invited out after dark for some frog spotlighting with the herpetologists, Dr Paul Doughty, Ryan Ellis and Kailah Thorn. I can’t begin to describe the experience, so please have a look at the video. You will not be disappointed!

Watch my video here